Our First Time on Bennett Pass and Barlow Trail

Heather and I went up with Matt and his wife and family to go run Bennett Pass and the Barlow Trail on the east side of Mount Hood down to Tygh Valley.

There are a lot of huge views of Mount Hood on Bennett Pass Trail.  We love these views and can’t wait to go back again soon.

Driving along on the trail with Mount Hood in the background.

Our little 4runner does great on this trail.

Behind the truck is Mount Jefferson, Three Finger Jack, The Three Sisters, and maybe Diamond Peak is even visible.

Our truck looks awesome with the top down.

This road is so much fun!

This little log was very naughty to our truck.

 


This particular nub caused a double sidewall puncture on one of our tires.

 

 

The puncture was much too severe to trail repair.

Luckily Matt and I put the spare on in short order onto the truck and away we went!

Going through the little rocky notch.

 

There’s that big mountain through the window!

On the dry side of the mountains, we went past this neat old abandoned house.

This old seed planter was rusting away in the weeds by the house.

After we passed by the house, the trail got much dustier and we stopped taking pictures.  We ended up looping back up Barlow Trail and back to Government Camp to get over to the Willamette Valley once more.

The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

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Heather and I stopped off at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center run by the BLM outside of Baker City, Oregon on our way back to Colorado.  We tried to visit the center a little over a year ago but the center was closed by the time we reached it.

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The area is absolutely spectacular.

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The Oregon Trail follows the ravine down the mountain.

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Some replica covered wagons were sitting outside the museum in the snow.IMG_2690 IMG_2691 IMG_2692 IMG_2693IMG_2709The Oregon Trail crosses the highway at the left side of this picture.

On the Oregon Trail in an Audi

 

Heather and I made it to the most visible area of the Oregon Trail near Baker City right as the sun set.  This memorial was erected in 1943 by the Kiwanis Club of Baker City.

 Looking north and west toward the valley around Baker City.

 Interesting stuff!

 

Ruts or car tracks?  I would say that these are ruts.

  Heather on the Oregon Trail.

 

 

 Yay trail!

 This is the trail.

 Looking south and east toward where the pioneers would have come from.

 The impressive (and closed) gate to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

 

We then proceeded to find an access point to the original road/trail.  The obvious course of action was to drive Heather’s Audi sedan on the trail.

 

Yes, she really did drive it on the Oregon Trail.  Yes, we nearly got stuck.

 

 

 Go go Audi!

 

 The deep ruts right next to our path.

 

 

 Heather coming up the worst stretch of the path.

 

 

 

Looking west into the Baker Valley from a point a bit further down the road.

 Looking east.

 

The trail.

  The way to the promised land of Oregon.