Mount Hood Highway
Mount Hood Highway No. 26 | |
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Route information | |
Maintained by ODOT | |
Length | 96.74 mi (155.69 km) |
Component highways | |
Major junctions | |
West end | US 26 / OR 10 / OR 99W in Portland |
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North end | US 30 / OR 35 at Hood River |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Oregon |
Counties | Multnomah, Clackamas, Hood River |
Highway system | |
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The Mount Hood Highway No. 26 (see
Much of the highway is part of the Mount Hood Scenic Byway, a
The portion from Sandy to Barlow Pass on the south flank of Mount Hood is aligned to the land portion of the historic Oregon Trail. It was developed in the 1840s as the Barlow Road.
Route description
The highway begins in Portland at the west end of the
After crossing the
The section of Powell Boulevard from
East of Sandy, the highway is a (mostly) four-lane undivided highway approaching the slopes of Mount Hood; as the highway climbs up towards
Route 35 winds over
The general public uses the name Mount Hood Highway to refer to much the same route, excluding the portions inside Portland and western Gresham (which are referred to by the street name of Powell Boulevard).
Between 1955 and 1978, the 15-mile (24 km) segment of the route through southeast Portland was proposed to be moved from Powell Boulevard to a new similar alignment known as the
Scenic Byway
From Troutdale, the Mount Hood Scenic Byway starts at the end of the Historic Columbia River Highway where the Troutdale Bridge crosses the Sandy River. For the first twenty miles (32 km) of the route, it follows a southwestern path along city streets: west on Glenn Otto Park Road into downtown Troutdale, connecting with Halsey Street, south along 238th Street (which veers to become 242nd Street), Burnside Street, Orient Drive, Dodge Park Boulevard, Lusted Road, and Ten Eyck Road.
The Byway continues into Sandy on US 26, heads west briefly on a spur to Jonsrud Viewpoint on Bluff Road, then backtracks to US 26.
It continues along
Points of interest
From west to east:
- Sandy River: the mouth close to Troutdale is where William Robert Broughton spotted and named Mount Hood
- Rooster RockState Park
- Jonsrud Viewpoint: view of Sandy River basin and Devil's Backbone, route of the Oregon Trail and Barlow Road
- Salmon River National Recreation Trail[3]
- Lost Creek Campground: Nature Trail & Old Maid Flats
- Philip Foster Farm National Historic Site
- West Barlow Tollgate: operated from 1874 to 1919[4]
- Laurel Hill Chute: This effectively made the Barlow Road one way by its 60% grade, easily the most harrowing portion of the Oregon Trail.
- Mount Hood Cultural Center and Museum: historic photos by Ray Atkeson in downtown Government Camp, Oregon
- Timberline Lodge and Ski Area
- Trillium Lake/Summit Meadow: a Barlow Road tollgate from 1866 through 1870
- White River Canyon: views of lahar and mud flows and evidence of frequent floods
- Barlow Pass/Pioneer Woman's Grave [5]
- Sahalie Falls: a horsetail waterfall 100 feet (30 m) high and 20 feet (6.1 m) wide, fed by Newton Clark Glacier and a tributary of Hood River
- Tamanawas Falls: a gentle two miles (3.2 km) trail along Cold Springs Creek to 100-foot (30 m) high falls
- Toll Bridge County Park
- Panorama Point County Park and Viewpoint
- Jesse and Winifred Hutson Museum: a National Historic Site in Parkdale, Oregon
- Mount Hood Railroad
- Historic Downtown Hood River
Major intersections
County | Location | mi | km | Destinations | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Multnomah | Portland | −0.10 | −0.16 | US 26 west / OR 10 / OR 99W (Naito Parkway) to Barbur Boulevard | Western end of US 26 overlap |
0.16 | 0.26 | Lake Oswego, Salem | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance only | ||
0.30– 1.00 | 0.48– 1.61 | Ross Island Bridge over the Willamette River | |||
1.01 | 1.63 | OR 99E (Grand Avenue) | Eastbound exit and entrance only | ||
1.20 | 1.93 | SE 9th Avenue to OR 99E | Signed westbound only | ||
1.60 | 2.57 | SE 17th Avenue to OR 99E | Eastbound exit and westbound entrance only | ||
5.04 | 8.11 | OR 213 (SE 82nd Avenue) | |||
5.69 | 9.16 | I-205 – Salem, Seattle | |||
Clackamas | Boring | 19.39 | 31.21 | OR 212 – Boring, Oregon City | |
Sandy | 24.24 | 39.01 | OR 211 – Estacada, Molalla | ||
Government Camp | 53.99 | 86.89 | OR 173 – Timberline Lodge | ||
| 55.87– 56.48 | 89.91– 90.90 | US 26 east / OR 35 begins – Madras, Bend | Eastern end of US 26 overlap; southern end of OR 35 overlap | |
Clackamas–Hood River county line | | 58.34 | 93.89 | Skyline Trail | |
Hood River | | 58.45 | 94.07 | Barlow Pass summit, elevation 4,161 feet (1,268 m) | |
| 62.43 | 100.47 | Bennett Pass summit, elevation 4,647 feet (1,416 m) | ||
| 62.47 | 100.54 | Mount Hood Meadows Ski Resort, Bennett Pass Sno-Park | Interchange | |
Cooper Spur | |||||
| 88.20 | 141.94 | Scenic viewpoint | ||
| 90.38 | 145.45 | OR 282 west – Odell | ||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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References
- ^ Oregon Department of Transportation, Digital Video Log Archived 2006-06-02 at the Library of Congress Web Archives
- ^ Oregon Department of Transportation, Descriptions of US and OR Routes Archived 2005-11-02 at the Wayback Machine (PDF)
- ^ Wilderness.net- Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness
- ^ http://www.byways.org/browse/byways/61400/places/61454/ disagrees with 1915 end date in Barlow Road
- ^ Barlow Pass/Pioneer Woman's Grave
External links
- ORoads - Mount Hood Freeway
- Description of Mount Hood Scenic Byway, from a Federal Highway Administration website
- Description from the Hood River County Chamber Of Commerce website
- Mount Hood Scenic Byway gets federal designation, a September 2005 article from Portland Business Journal
- Oregon Transportation Commission approves Byway proposal, a March 2005 press release from the official Oregon website
- Mount Hood Scenic Byway (with map), from the Oregon Tourism Commission website