Saddle Mountain

Saddle Mountain is cool. It's a big ol' random mountain out in the Oregon Coast range that just dwarfs everything else around it. It remains one of my favorite hikes to date.

Saddle Mountain (the tallest one on the left, behind the first mountain) from the Astoria Column.

It's about an hour west of Portland close to the Pacific coast. You can see the ocean from the top, actually. You drive a long way on HW 26 and just when you start to wonder where the thing is you see the cutoff road. Then it's 7 miles on a windy narrow road to the parking lot. Then it's 2.5 miles up to glorious stuff.

The hike starts out pretty mild and varies a lot on its way to the top. Some sections are steep switchbacks, some areas are very exposed and some areas heavily wooded. There were a surprising amount of bugs on our trip, and I believe we did it in early August. You start off in heavily wooded and underbrush areas, you get occasional views of the mountains to the south through the trees as you climb up.

Facing south

The clearcutting really hurts the landscape :(

Then you reach an open rock knobby area and the trail gets steep with metal grate fence on the trail to help with traction/maintenance. Then you end up back in the woods for a bit in a nice picnic area as the thick underbrush is now gone. After this the hike makes its mark.

You climb up another hill into the open fields and now you are near the top of the first peak, walking along the cliff side with great views and wildflowers around everywhere. You pass a nice rock outcrop and cliff edge with the best view we had all day. 

Tiny girlfriend on the rock spur overlook area

The ocean, seen just barely on the right side where the land ends

posing on the rock

girlfriend on the rock

Then the final challenge hits. You descend into the saddle of Saddle Mtn, then climb back up the final summit and it is just brutal. The worst part was, when we got there...it clouded over. Apparently this happens a lot, the peak is just high enough (3200 feet) to get stuck in the frequent clouds. Maybe that's why the old fire watch station that was up here is now just foundation and handrails. The view would clear up a bit occasionally, but it's cold up there.

GREAT VIEW!

Heading into the cloud

But you walk down maybe 200 feet into the saddle again and you are suddenly below the could line.

The cloud line was very visible

The best picture taken of me on a hike so far, in the saddle of Saddle Mtn

Facing north

Some cute wildflowers on the slopes

Then you just head back to the first overlook and take your pictures there because it's the best photo spot anyway.

The final climb of Saddle from the lower viewpoint

The summit of Saddle from before the climb. You can faintly see the trail on the lower right side.

The ocean in the distance

Posing

Posing

View south into the coastal range

woo

Triumph

The final exposed ascent, from when you first see it to the top, is phenomenal mountain hiking and gives you a greater sense of scale than most hikes I've done. It's perfect and the main reason I remember this place so fondly. I need to get back this year and try and catch a cloudless day.