Old-Growth Hikes in the North Oregon Cascades
NOTE: Hikes will be updated over the 2024 hiking season.
Hikes featuring old forests are grouped by Forest Service administrative unit, and are based on recent updates to descriptions first published from 1993-2003 through a series of old-growth hiking guides. Each hike where old growth remains features a map, text description, and photos. Hikes where the old forest has been lost over the last 30 years, mostly due to wildfires, are so indicated.
Hikes are numbered 1-50 and follow the numbers assigned in earlier editions of “50 Old-Growth Hikes in the Mt. Hood National Forest.”
Note that hikes in the Oregon portion of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area are included here as well.
Hikers might benefit from procuring paper maps or using an app to download maps for additional map detail. Most hikes will not have reliable cell coverage.
Lowland - Lower elevations with mostly Douglas-fir and western hemlock, though western redcedar is common.
Transition - Middle elevations where noble fir, Pacific silver fir and mountain hemlock mix with low-evelation species.
Snow zone - Higher elevations with noble fir, Pacific silver fir and mountain hemlock; Douglas-fir and western hemlock are largely absent.
Dry mixed conifer - Dryer sites where ponderosa pine, incense cedar, Douglas-fir, grand fir and sugar pine are common, thought to have developed with more frequent fires.
Old growth - Areas where all the characteristics (large trees, snags, and down wood and a complex tree canopy) of old growth are present.
Partial old growth - Areas that contain some old-growth characteristics, either mature stands that may soon grow into old growth, or younger stands usually resulting from fire that retain some older trees.