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Fifty-Four Trails Shut on Mount Hood, and the Order Runs to New Year's Eve
The Grasshopper Fire has taken most of the Barlow Ranger District off the map. The Pacific Crest Trail is holding, for now.
Fifty-four trails and twenty-four forest roads in Mount Hood National Forest closed on August 4 as the Grasshopper Fire pushed toward the mountain. The forest describes it as a good portion of the Barlow Ranger District. The order runs through December 31 unless it is rescinded or amended first.
The fire started on July 23 and has reached roughly 48,000 acres at 23 percent containment, close enough to the Mount Hood Highway to matter. Parts of the Timberline Trail are inside the closure.
The Pacific Crest Trail portion of the Timberline, which runs around the east side of the mountain, is still open. Forest staff attribute that partly to winds swinging back to the west, which is the kind of reprieve that can reverse inside a day.
Do not expect a clean reopening. The forest says it will shrink the closure area before lifting it entirely, and that developed sites, campgrounds and heavily used roads will stay shut until hazard trees and damaged infrastructure are dealt with. That process runs on a scale of seasons.
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