In September we decided to try the Saddle Mountain Summit Trail. The weather was starting to change and with the smoke from the fires gone it seemed like a good time to do this trail. I read up about it on my trail app. It said it was 4.5 miles out and back, rated as difficult, is the highest point in NW Oregon, on a clear day has views from the ocean to Mt St. Helens and in May and June has a great floral display. The hardest part of the trail was to be towards the end as the trail gets steeper as it gains height. So we felt up for a challenge and headed for Saddle Mountain.
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Sign detailing trail challenges
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The beginning of the trail was a nice zig-zag through nicely forested areas
And as promised the trail was more arduous above the tree line and had great views.
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| If you enlarge this you might be able to see that the tiny colorful dots at the top of the hill are really people |
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And here we are at the top
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The day we went the view was obscured by haze, so we didn't see any mountains in the cascade range. And the ocean was hidden by a nice fog bank. We could see the Columbia River and Washington. The views were still great. Because we went in September there were really no flowers. We would like to come back in May or June before school lets out and try it again. The steeper parts of the climb were well maintained. They had an obvious path leading to the top and many places along the way had wire or chain link fencing down on the ground to help grip the trail. There wasn't much railing along the way but railing was everywhere on the very top. Next time we do this trail we will take our trekking poles-this hike would be a good one to use them. All in all it was a nice hike and I'm looking forward to doing it again.
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