Mount Hood Loop Scenic Drive Self Guided Audio Tour

This picturesque drive circles Oregon’s tallest peak—Mount Hood, rising over 11,000 feet. Along the way, you’ll enjoy breathtaking views, quaint towns, and access to alpine trails and historic spots.

The tour is over 120 miles long, with more than 60+ audio stories, and takes about 7-8 hours to complete.

The interstate runs along the gorge, but we’d miss all the best sites that way! We are going to tour on the more attractive route.

This section of our tour takes us along the Historic Columbia River Highway, a route constructed between 1913 and 1922 to showcase the beauty of the gorge.

That crown jewel along the king of roads. I know it sounds like I'm really pumping it up - but it really is a great view.

Multnomah Falls is the second-tallest year-round waterfall in the United States, and the number-one most-visited natural recreation site in the Pacific Northwest. Besides the waterfall, we’ll also find Multnomah Falls Lodge there.

It’s the Eagle Creek Trail, which follows Eagle Creek along its lush slot canyon, passing a few waterfalls along the way. The whole trail is 23 miles long, but you certainly don’t have to hike the entire length.

This one is called Latourell Falls, and it’s a doozy of a cascade plunging 224 feet over a cliff of columnar basalt. It’s just a short walk from the parking lot, so unless we’re in a big hurry, I do think this one is worth a stop.

This is Shepperd’s Dell Falls, and it’s a worthy quick stop. It requires just a tenth-of-a-mile stroll next to a beautiful old bridge from 1914 to see this double-decker waterfall.

Bridal Veil Falls is next up on our waterfall tour, and it’s one of my favorites in a strong selection. This powerful, two-tiered cascade tumbles 120 feet over mossy rocks. Seeing this one requires a moderate, 2/3-mile hike.

We’re approaching a classic Oregon hike called Angel’s Rest next. This one is a workout - it climbs 1,500 feet over 2.4 miles to a stunning bluff overlook. From up there, you’ll get views of Beacon Rock, Silver Star Mountain, and the city of Portland.

This time, we’re coming up on the absolute showstoppers of the Columbia River Gorge. Number one is Wahkeena Falls, which you might think is a really impressive waterfall until you see number two. But first things first: Next up is Wahkeena Falls, which truly is an impressive waterfall, that tumbles a tall 242 feet through a narrow gorge.

I talked about the Horsetail Falls Trail already, and we can also access that nice five-waterfall loop from this direction. You can also hike straight to Ponytail Falls from here, a 1-mile round trip.

This is the first federal dam project on the Columbia River, built in 1938 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. A historic building on an island in the middle of the river houses the Bradford Island Visitor Center with exhibits about local history and an observation deck with great views of the gorge.

We have a fun suggested quick side trip coming up: It’s the little town of Cascade Locks, and it boasts a few attractions worth checking out.

Bridge of the Gods is more than just a very cool-looking historic bridge. It’s also officially part of the Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT for short, that 2,650-mile long-distance path from Mexico to the Canadian border.

This is a moderate, short trail studded with cascades. In about a mile, we can see four. First, walk just a tenth of a mile east to glimpse Starvation Creek Falls.

Downtown Hood River is great for strolling around and exploring its many boutique shops, art galleries, restaurants, wineries, and breweries. It's interesting to poke around the History Museum of Hood River County, which has exhibits on human history from the Indigenous cultures of the gorge up through settlers, loggers, and Japanese Americans - especially as an activity if the weather isn't great.

In Hood River, I can combine both these things. If it's close to that time of day, a stop for Full Sail Brewing might be enjoyable. This little brewery opened in a former fruit canning factory back in 1987, making it one of the very first microbreweries in Oregon.

The Cloud Cap Inn was constructed at about 6,000 feet on the mountain’s northeastern side. This was the first permanent resort built on Mt. Hood, and opened in 1889. And what an inn it was—handsome stone-and timber construction, fine dining, beds for 30 lucky guests, and eventually, even flush toilets!

Starting from that same Elk Meadows trailhead, start by going up, taking the Elk Meadows Trail to connect to Newton Creek Trail and then a section of the famous Timberline Trail.

The Devils Kitchen is right under the most popular routes that mountaineers take when climbing Mt. Hood, so anyone who slips and falls along those trails could end up in a fumarole.

We want to follow the sign marked 26 West for Portland. So just be sure to keep in the lane that exits off to the right about a minute or so up ahead.

Not long after this large merging of highways, we'll see the turn off for one of Portland's favorite weekend getaways, Trillium Lake

Timberline Lodge itself is a National Historic Landmark, and if you'll enjoy its stylized architecture. Finished in 1937, it’s considered a prime example of a style called Cascadian architecture.

One is the hike to Mirror Lake, which is a gorgeous lake with a picture-perfect view of Mt. Hood. If you’re into geology, or even just beutiful scenery, this is an example of a glacial cirque lake—that means it sits in an amphitheater-shaped basin that was carved by glaciers.

Some stories say that a trucker got in a terrible accident at Silent Rock, and it’s been cursed ever since. Others say it goes back to a construction accident, or even back to Native tribes throwing their enemies off the mountain here.

It’s called Ramona Falls, and on this tour, which has many great waterfalls to see - this one is a stand out. Ramona Falls itself is a 120-foot-tall waterfall that flows over a black cliff of volcanic columnar basalt.