Gnarl Ridge

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Today we hiked the Timberline Trail to Gnarl Ridge. We started at Cloud Cap and headed south, entering the Mt. Hood Wilderness right away:

Timberline Trail

Our first peek at the mountain:

Timberline Trail

Timberline Trail

Continuing on:

Timberline Trail

Timberline Trail

Looking north to Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams, with some haze:

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

After 1.1 miles we passed the junction with the Cooper Spur Trail and continued along the Timberline Trail:

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

Looking back at the Cooper Spur Shelter:

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

The landscape here is pretty barren:

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

Mt. Hood again:

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

Lamberson Butte came into view:

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

Hiking to Gnarl Ridge

Looking east to Lookout Mountain:

Looking east

We reached a nice viewpoint at the top of Gnarl Ridge:

Mt. Hood

Waterfall

There’s a rockpile there:

Gnarl Ridge

I wanted to go as far as Lamberson Butte, but the trail started losing elevation on its way down Gnarl Ridge, so we turned around and headed back to that viewpoint:

Mt. Hood

Hazy view of Mt. Jefferson:

Mt. Jefferson

Heading back this was our parting view of Lamberson Butte:

Lamberson Butte

Lamberson Butte

On the way back we could see the haze in Washington had gotten worse:

Timberline Trail

Timberline Trail

Timberline Trail

Timberline Trail

Gaia stats: 7.25 miles, 2,000′ elevation gain