Great hiking/backpacking areas
 

Husband and I are from Michigan, though lived for several years in Colorado. My favorite state is Washington, esp. the mountains. Beautiful scenery with plenty of greenery (wildflowers are a bonus) is what we're looking for in Oregon. Our bike trip starts in Washington (and includes Mt. Ranier and Mt. St. Helens) but ends in the Mt. Hood area Aug. 1, and we have a week to backpack and sightsee with a night or two at an inn for showers. I'd welcome any recommendations besides Crater Lake. Thanks!

The Timberline Trail right there on Mt. Hood is fantastic for backpacking. Another option would be to head over around the Bend area. All sorts of great backpacking options in that general area. As much as I like both of these, I would really encourage you to look east, toward the Wallowa's. It is a whole other world in that area! We will be spending a week over there backpacking this summer as well.

We are going to Oregon this next summer. If you are adventruous check out www.deserthighlights.com

you can also find it on youtube.

Matt has offered his service in Moab for several years, but started this activity in Oregon this past summer. We have been with his company in Moab and look forward to Oregon. You will see waterfalls and canyon only few people have ever seen. I don't think he has much on his website about Oregon, yet, but look under moabmatt on you tube.

rickandpat,

Just to give you another possibility for the future - look into Utah. The hiking in the Wasatch is fabulous and challenging, the scenery fantastic and there are carpets of wildflowers. You have several options, staying in a cabin, a condo at one of the major ski areas, or camping and doing hikes from there. Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons have all 3.

Or, you can head east from SLC (1.5 hours) to the Uinta Wilderness and national forest for backpacking of any length you choose. Thousands of lakes, wildflowers, wildlife, not many people.

So many wonderful places to go!

That sounds like an ambitious bike ride---is is "Tour de Volcanos" or something like that?

I rode partway up to Mt. St. Helens last summer. It is great ride and the road is pretty bike-friendly, with nice wide shoulders. I can't say the same of the Mt. Rainier roads---be careful!!

I second what both mms said about the Wallowas and what Dayle said about the Wasatch. We haven't hiked in the Wallowas yet, but are hoping for a weekend backpack there next summer.

We do hike in the Wasatch almost every summer. And I leave beautiful Washington State to do so. The Wasatch is gorgeous---very green and with more wildflowers than I have seen anywhere but Paradise (Mt. Rainier). It isn't backpacking country, but offers lots of good strenuous and scenic dayhikes.

Enzian--I will warn you, a weekend will just be a teaser;) We were so bummed to have to cancel last summers weeklong trip, but have it on tap for this year!

mms---it could be more than a weekend, but it all depends on schedules of my son and his wife. They have very little vacation, so I was thinking of a weekend for starters.

I appreciate all the suggestions so far, and will look them up. I'll admit Utah was never on my short list before. The bike ride is with Bicycle Adventures - their Volcanoes of Washington challenge. The biking is strenuous, but someone else takes care of the gear and they stop at nice inns each night, so it's pretty cushy.

Spirobulldog, we are adventurous, and loved the canyoning in Costa Rica (admittedly pretty tame stuff). But the canyoning we did in Croatia was so intense and so cold - even dangerous at times - I'm not too keen on doing it again just yet.

Matt refers to it as Canyoneering in Utah, but Canyoning in Oregon. The stuff Utah was pretty tame, but the one I want to do in Oregon looks much wilder.

So does the bike ride start at Mt. Baker? Sounds like lots of fun--- and great scenery.

A fabulous flower hike is Iron Mountain/Cone Peak - over 300 varieties of wild flowers grow there.
Its close to Sisters and Sweet Home (Oregon) - beautiful vistas of flowers about the 2nd week of Jul
Bill Sullivan is our local hiking guru and many books on hiking in this area .
There are a lot of nice hikes in the Columbia River Gorge area
Eagle Creek is a nice one with a couple of waterfalls but the very best waterfall hike is Silver Falls State Park - close to Salem- there are 12 waterfalls that you can hike too- although in Aug they likely wont be as dramatic.
Of course depends on how difficult you want your hike to be- there is always one of the Three Sisters or Mt St Helens - they are both strenuous day hikes.
I am a member of an Oregon hiking club so if I can give you any other info let me know

Sunbum, thanks for the great suggestions. Just wondering, Washington has two very good websites for hiking info and trip reports - wta.org and nwhikers.net - which I found useful last year in pinpointing where I could dodge the late snow. Does Oregon have something like that?

Enzian, the ride starts on the East side somewhere, and visits Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood. That sounds like plenty of uphill riding to me. (Rick is doing the ride, I'm enjoying myself separately but catching up with him here and there).

A good local hiking website is www.portlandhikers.org. Also, the Mazama's group is a good resource for hiking around the state.

Another group is "Friends of the Columbia River Gorge" who do some great Gorge Hikes

http://www.gorgefriends.org/hikes/currentschedule/