Burnt Lake Hike

Burnt Lake Hike

Me, Chey, Mielie and Jim

July 15th, 2020
Burnt Lake/Mt Hood National Forest
Distance: In/Out 8.0 miles/10miles
EG: 1526 ft

What an amazing hike! It's been many moons since I've been on this trail that I think I completely forgot what it looked like. I believe I was in my 20's last time I went on this hike. Upon looking at the hike in an old book my notes stated that this hike was "nice, relaxing lake. Very beautiful views, and a gradual incline". I would agree with it all today. 

Alltrails report stated there were a lot of trees down and a lot of creek crossings. We were lucky. All the trees had been removed off the trail recently and we only had one tree crossing on a side trail down to the river and back. There were a few creek crossings but nothing out of the norm for hiking on Mt Hood. One creek went down the trail for a bit, but as long as you are prepared with proper footwear you will be just fine. 

Overall I would describe the first half of the hike up as a gentle uphill climb following the beautiful sounds of a creek. The main views included a beautiful forest covered trail and many creek crossings. You could see the remnants of a previous forest fire in the area with a few burned out trees (which I understand is how this lake got its name), but most of the ground cover has replenished itself. After a switchback, the trail climbs up a bit steeper rising 900ft in 1.5miles with some amazing views of Mt Hood, a creek that flows into the trail and some erosion of the trail. Nothing to be concerned about. 

Because most of my hiking these days are with the scouts our hikes have to be a certain distance to meet the requirements of the merit badge which leaves a lot of trails out. It's a shame that this is typically one of them, as its a beautiful representation of all that Mt Hood has to offer with the gentle rolling stream, the uphill climbs, a quiet mountain lake, and forested trails. 

Our girls had a great time on this hike with some time playing in Burnt lake. They did have to hike the road a bit to complete their miles, but I think they would do it again. This was the perfect hike to complete to reassure Mielie that hiking isn't always bad (after Haag lakes Hell Hike). We would love to backpack this area in the future, after reading a little bit more about the area there are plenty of opportunities to add on to this hike.

PS. In the future if we want to use this as a day hike for the Hiking Merit Badge you can start at the Burnt Lake TH and hike up to Burnt Lake, then up to Cast Lake and back down to the TH would be about 12 miles. The Elevation from Burnt to Cast is only 955ft more but a drop of 650ft EL. Which means you will have some climbing back.