Arriving @ GORGEOUS McNeil Point Trail Junction! | Timberline Mount Hood Wilderness | 4K | Oregon

This was a 10.7 mile, 3500 FT Elevation Gain Day-Hike in Oregon, Mount Hood National Forest & Mount Hood Wilderness, hiking a Northern Approach to Timberline Loop that is much less popular than the more common Southern Approach access points, starting at Mazama Trailhead and hiking to 3.6 miles & 2200 FT Elevation Gain to Timberline Loop, taking Timberline Loop segment to McNeil Point Trail Junction, and exploring the McNeil Point Triangle Zone to Ho Rock before returning back to Mazama Trailhead.

Road conditions - I consider this a "road not taken" hike; hikes like Ramona Falls, Zig Zag Canyon & Elk Meadows get a lot more attention; part of this is the easier Southern access points. This hike in contrast goes to the North - to get to Mazama Trailhead, one must take Lola Pass and then go down a few miles of gravel Forest Road, approximately 18 miles in all total from the highway. It is long and arduous, takes about 45 minutes of patience One Way, and one must watch for large pot holes particularly in the Lola Pass area, but the road itself was very passable, I'd say for most vehicles with proper caution and patience, and I've been on far worse forest roads all around Central Oregon - so its the long slow burn of the drive that is more cumbersome than the actual bumpiness/condition of the road itself in my humble opinion.....of course DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK!

For this "road not taken" reason, I consider this a great contrarian hedge play hike in the area on a Saturday in Summer to have a low traffic hike. Also, particularly in July (this was hiked July 29, 2023), because a large part of it is Burnout, it is a LOW-TO-NO mosquito zone - while some parts of the Cascades in July are absolutely mosquito infested, I didn't get a single bite the entire day - hiking Burnout Areas during July in Oregon is my counter-mosquito contrarian recommendation hike hack! Also to factor in, I had checked Alltrails, and the trail had just been cleared of debris / downed logs earlier that week so it was clear and pristine for the entire hike!

While I'd say other Timberline Loop sections like Zig Zag Canyon and Ramona Falls are objectively higher beauty areas, the Mazama Trail area is quite beautiful in its own right and is absolutely worth doing at least once if nothing else as a bucket list hike - in some other States, Mazama Trail would be THE premiere hike, it just happens to be unlucky to be buried half way down the Trail list in the Timberline sea of hiking riches. So after doing it, I would highly recommend it as a "road not taken" hike, and a great July low traffic low mosquito contrarian play (confirm access / snow has melted conditions wise)!