Labor Day Weekend 2019 on Mount Hood
Summer’s going to fade fast. We know it is.
So around here, we do our best to make the most of all that we can, even if it sometimes makes us a little rough around the edges. Case in point: A three-day weekend on Mount Hood at the close of the first week of school.
We headed to a favorite area near the Sandy River and Zigzag, which was super crowded but not entirely crammed. It served as our home base for the weekend, which found us doing everything from picking early huckleberries, shooting BB guns and exploring a now-off-limits Sandy River beach to taking in “The Princess Bride” at Mt. Hood Meadows, hiking Tamanawas Falls and enjoying a tribute to the Grateful Dead at Timberline Lodge during their annual Mountain Music Fest.
The weather was amazing, the mountain bare but scenic and all of us having an escape that we’ll be thinking about once all this sunshine fades and we’re bundled up inside on a sofa in late January.
A few photos to illustrate the weekend:
Our secret Sandy River spot remains.
Picking huckleberries near the Sandy River.
Watching “The Princess Bride” like we’re at the drive-in at Mt. Hood Meadows.
This is when we first hiked Tamanawas Falls all together in 2012.
And here they are today.
Madeline’s Tamanawas selfie.
Timberline’s Mountain Music Fest.
Spring Skiing on Mount Hood 2017
I suppose this is the season we should have bought spring passes for Timberline Lodge & Ski Area, seeing as how it’s still flush with snow in June while all the other resorts have long since closed.
But there’s no complaining. We spent a snowy, snowy weekend at Timberline back in March for Spencer’s birthday, stayed for a week in Government Camp for spring break and skied at Mt. Hood Meadows five of seven days, and made the most of an epic spring ski season that went strong until Meadows closed for the year on May 6.
It was a great season. On Mount Hood, they all are.
The snow piled up at Timberline Lodge in early March for Spencer’s birthday weekend.
Tons of snow made for deep powder skiing at Timberline in early March.
Spring break at Mt. Hood Meadows was largely socked in, but the sun broke through every now and then.
Madeline cruising down Vista at Mt. Hood Meadows, a favorite run on the mountain.
Another great ski season on Mount Hood.
Scenes from a Ski Season on Mount Hood
Sure, it’s been over for us for just about a month now, but it was a good one this year, the ski season on Mount Hood.
For us, not hardcore skiers by any means, it didn’t even start until early March, when Amy and I took a day on the slopes to ourselves to mark our 20 years together while the kids learned away. We sampled Timberline’s new Phlox Cabin and just got our ski legs on for the season.
While we’ve done Timberline’s spring pass in the past, we decided to branch out this year and check out just what Mt. Hood Meadows had to offer. Lame, I know, that in our nearly two decades here in Oregon, we’ve never skied at Meadows, even though we’ve hiked through it and sledded just down the road at White River.
From the first go at it, though, we were hooked.
Wow. We’d heard some rumors about Meadows compared to Timberline: that it was overcrowded, full of attitude, expensive. None of that came to light for us.
Instead, what we found all spring season long was a flood of new terrain and vistas that we’d never taken in before, friendly folks all around and just a fun, mountain atmosphere. Some scenes from this season as we look forward to next (but head into a sunny summer first) . . .
On MOUNT HOOD 