2.9 hr
Overview
Fred McNeil, writer for the Oregon Journal and avid outdoorsman, author of the classic McNeil’s Mount Hood: Wy’East the Mountain Revisited, passed away in 1958 and, fittingly, his friends hiked up to McNeil Point the following year to spread his ashes near the CCC shelter there. The view is magnificent up the mountain across the spread of the Sandy Glacier, with Pulpit Rock standing out on the skyline. From the Point, you can also see down the Muddy Fork, with its high, splashing waterfalls, to the confluence of the Sandy with the Zigzag River. Wildflowers abound in the alpine meadows after the snow melts. The route outlined here, a quieter one than the busy approach from the Top Spur Trailhead, takes you from the less-visited McGee Creek Trailhead up a forested slope carpeted with huckleberry bushes, and then along the Bald Mountain Ridge, with vistas of its own. Traverse the McGee Creek bowl and take the trail to the Point across snow fields and steep slopes. To complete the loop, return via the short but very steep scramble path that intersects with the Timberline Trail. Hike past a campsite, and follow an old road bed to the trailhead kiosk, where you need to fill out a wilderness permit. The trail soon bends left to leave the road bed and ascend a slope in a Douglas-fir, silver fir, western hemlock forest. Drop through a bear-grass, huckleberry, and rhododendron to pass a boundary sign for the Mt. Hood Wilderness. Now much larger trees (hemlock, Douglas-fir, cedar) appear on this slope above Elk Creek. Huckleberries are profuse here, and this is an excellent trail to dally on from mid- to late August when they ripen. The path steepens past where the a seep causes a boggy patch on the trail tread. Reach the Timberline-McGee Creek Trail Junction, and go left. Head up the wide trail in a montane forest of mountain hemlock and noble fir. Reach the crest of the McGee Ridge, and hike along it in dense silver fir woodland. The trail drops off the crest to the right and then rejoins it. Here dwarf mountain heml
Trail Stats
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859 m
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Photos
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400px-McNeilPointMcGeeCreekMap
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250px-Jacob%27s_ladder_%28Polemonium_pulcherrimum%29%2C_McNeil_Point
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250px-West_Fork_Ladd_Creek_Creek_from_McNeil_Point_Trail
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250px-Red_mountain_heather%2C_McNeil_Point
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250px-Mt
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250px-Wilderness_sign%2C_McGee_Creek_Trail
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400px-McNeil_Point_shelter%2C_McNeil_Point