This is a hike I do for my birthday with friends to see western larches at peak color — a late-fall outing near Mount Hood that I always look forward to.

distance: 7.4 miles
elevation gain: 1,080 ft.
hike description: OregonHikers.org – Eightmile Creek Loop
drive time from Portland: 1 hour 30 minutes
parking pass: none

We started at the Bottle Prairie Trailhead and hiked counterclockwise, taking a short side trail to Perry Point for views toward the Badger Creek Wilderness and Lookout Mountain — a great preview of what was ahead.

The loop sits on the east side of Mount Hood in an area popular with mountain bikers. Since most of my hiking is in or west of the Cascades, I always notice the different vegetation here — tall Ponderosa pines with their puzzle-piece bark and smooth-branched manzanita shrubs.

Back on the loop, the trail contours along a ridge before a spur leads to the Fivemile Butte Lookout, a Forest Service rental. From there, we followed the gravel road briefly to a sunny lunch spot with a view of the tip of Mount Hood.

After lunch, we entered my favorite part of the loop: a hillside filled with western larches. Mature larches often tower 100–200 feet tall, placing their brightest color high overhead. But this trail passes through a large stand of younger larches growing in a formerly logged area — close enough to walk among and see the delicate branches and soft needles up close.

Larches only grow east of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest and are the only conifer that loses its needles. Just before they drop, the needles turn brilliant shades of yellow and gold, usually in late October and early November. Of the two larch species in our region — western and alpine — this trail features the western larch, which grows at lower elevations.

The trail switchbacks through this entire section, offering new angles and pockets of color around every corner.

Eventually, the loop bends back toward the trailhead and drops into a lower forest for the last couple of miles. This stretch has quite a few downed trees, some from the intense 2020 Labor Day windstorm.

While there aren’t views of Mount Hood from the trail itself, the mountain greeted us on the drive home, and we stopped a couple of times to take photos.