Cooper Spur is the Highest Maintained Trail on hood
When smoke from forest fires makes hiking in Central Oregon unsafe, one option can be to go north towards Mt Hood. There are times in which air quality is hazardous in Central Oregon and the air is clear in the north part of the state. This was the situation on July 27th. It is a bit of a drive from Bend to Mt Hood (plan on 2.5 hours), but the air was clear mid morning in the Mt. Hood National Forest.
Cooper Spur is located on the northeast flank of Mt. Hood and has multiple ways to hike to it. The hike from the Cooper Spur Trailhead is one of the shorter ways, but it does gain almost 2700 feet of elevation in roughly 3 miles so it is considered a more challenging hike. To access the this trailhead, hikers drive on close to 9 miles of gravel road which has sections of bad potholes and steep drop offs at the end, but it is passable.
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The initial hike takes trekkers through an old growth mountain hemlock forest complete with wildflowers and streams. As hikers climb, they eventually leave the forest and the path takes them through the tumbled rock of the lower sections of the Eliot Glacier moraine. After hiking above this area, hikers find themselves on the windswept, rocky plane under Cooper Spur. A 70 year old rock shelter is located here, the last one of several that once encircled Mt. Hood and acted as resting places for those who attempted the 41 mile Timberline Trail that still attracts many backpackers today. It is amazing to see this shelter still standing, given all the huge boulders that are nearby, the results of numerous avalanches.
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Past the stone shelter, the trail passes through rocky landscape until the actual push up the lower sections of Cooper Spur begins. Switchbacks take hikers up the spur, but near the top a snow field (this was July 27, 2024) creates a barrier that makes summiting the spur challenging. Those who wish to make it to the top need to boulder along the ridge overlooking Eliot Glacier until they reach the summit.
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Once hikers reach the top of the spur, the views toward the summit are amazing as would be views toward Central Oregon and the Columbia Basin on a clear day. There is a monument stone carved in 1910 from a Japanese hiking party that is interesting to see. If hikers take a quiet break on the summit, they can hear the breaking (calving) of Eliot Glacier as it moves and thaws in the summer heat.
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