Pika

Artificial intelligence, this blog… and Vista Ridge?

/ Tom Kloster / 5 Comments

Ah, the good old days of 2024… remember when AI was harmlessly about morphing yourself into an action figure…?

We’re living in a remarkable (and unnerving) time. In just the past three years, the U.S. tech industry has managed to write algorithms so advanced that computers can self-learn (steal?) from anything humanity has posted online over the past 30 years. More remarkable (and unnerving) is the fact that these models have been released to the world to use as everyday tools. Don’t worry, I’m sure everything will be fine… right?

Clearly, there is plenty to be concerned about with the explosive growth of artificial intelligence and creepy, invasive new AI-based applications like “Muse”, Meta’s new “personal assistant” designed to further record (read: monetize) our most personal thoughts. Yikes. But it’s also true that AI has unleashed a new wave of innovation with its uncanny ability to create imagery from typed words and, conversely, compose prose from a simple image. That ability is at the heart of what makes the generative AI models so “human” and therefore useful.

On that more positive track, I’ve been immersing myself in the new technology with a combination of curiosity and trepidation. Like earlier waves of technology that brought us personal computers, cell phones and the internet, AI models are simply a tool. Their use depends on the motives of human behind a keyboard. At least until the models decide otherwise, of course… Hal? Are you reading this? Hal?

Ask a chatbot to morph a favorite photo memory into a knock-off Van Gogh? Six words and a single take were enough. I wonder if I should now ask the bot to send me one of its ears..?

In that spirit, I thought I would share some of the AI-assisted work I’ve been experimenting with. My goal is to better illustrate ideas that my old-school photos and graphic renderings too often fall short on. I’m surprisingly excited about the potential thus far, and you’ll no doubt see AI-assisted graphics on the blog in future articles — something I will always note, by the way.

I’ve also spent some time with AI-assisted text generation on projects outside this blog, and this is where the technology feels cold, reductive and often exploitive. Yes, it’s a quick way to write a generic memo or outline, but it’s neither fun nor creative to have an algorithm do the writing for you. This side of the chatbot technology gets worse, too: new research shows that AI text generation is much more resource-consumptive than we might expect. Maybe this reality will emerge as a check on rampant reliance on AI to write memos and term papers?

Surprisingly, image generation assisted by AI is surprisingly less resource-consumptive. That seems counter-intuitive, but here’s a relative comparison of the water used (for cooling server arrays) by data centers to generate a large graphic image versus a simple, one-page memo:

The AI industry tells us they’re building data centers with looped cooling to address this water consumption problem – but make no mistake, the vast number of server farms don’t use looped systems and burn through fresh water at an astonishing rate, as we’ve seen playing out right here in Oregon.

For all of these reasons, rest assured that you won’t be seeing AI-generated text on this blog, not even for editing and proofing — at least while my organic, cell-based fingers can still operate a keyboard. Besides, readers would likely miss the missed typos, run-on sentences and redundancies that are my trademark!

Using AI to merge my imagery and imagination …

If you’ve visited the blog over the years, you know that I love to dreamscape about how things could be.Typically, I rely on real images of things as they are and use marked-up maps, graphics and text to attempt to describe those dreamscapes in my mind. This is where AI-assisted graphics are powerful, fun — and maddening — all at once.

For starters, short of a mind-meld with my computer (big tech is working on that, no doubt), AI models still require me to type commands into a text field on screen – which is comically similar to typing in abstract line code way back in college, when I was learning soon-to-be-useless programming languages. By trial and error, though, you can begin to see how the models “think” and tailor your input accordingly. But it’s surprisingly clunky.

The powerful difference with AI-assisted imagery begins with using my own photos as the base image to build upon. The immense power of the algorithms lies in their ability to “look” at an image I’ve uploaded and quickly find imagery from across the internet that has already been absorbed into the model that corresponds to my editing instructions (and yes, Trekkers, The Borg have arrived…).

Resistance to the AI oligarchs is… futile?

Give the model a base image, a few text prompts and in 15-30 seconds of processing it generates an image that more often than not comes very close to what I had imagined. This is where the process can be both fun and maddening. It’s fun when the AI models immediately generate a screen image that is close to spot-on in matching the one in my head.

This is most often the case when the base image I’ve offered has a lot of references out there on the web for the algorithm to draw from, like the following rendering examples that begin with widely photographed sides of Mount Hood:

This image is from a lovely summer hike in 2023 near Timberline Lodge, but the sky isn’t particularly interesting. Can AI improve this scene without looking overly fake?

Yowsa! My prompt was to “add dramatic clouds”, and AI took that quite seriously! The only thing missing is Charleton Heston in robes and a giant fake beard shouting “Let my people go!” The hikers were added later, with a separate set of prompts, as I’ve learned AI edits work best in baby steps. As is the case with most AI-assisted images, the dial on color saturation seems to always be turned up to 11, by default.

Here’s the final AI-assisted rendering, with instructions to tone down the contrast and saturation and with some slight adjustments to the hikers (e.g., the first hiker is now looking at the mountain instead of his feet). But does it look real?

Like the first test image, this view of the Cooper Spur Shelter from early July hike in 2022 had everything but an interesting sky. Would AI be able to help?

Zoinks! Well, in defense of the AI algorithm, I did ask for “dramatic” clouds, once again. The hikers were added with separate prompts, and correctly rendered as the same hikers from the previous set of renderings – though more about their default ethnicity later in this article.

The final AI-assisted version after prompting the AI tool to tone down the color and contrast and make the clouds “less cartoonish and more realistic” (the exact wording of the prompt). Does this look real?

Whether the versions created with AI are an improvement on reality is a matter of taste, and make no mistake, I won’t be using AI to “improve” images I’ve taken around WyEast County. The detail worth pointing out is how the anatomy of the mountain, itself, was preserved in these examples. When AI models render a new image from a real scene, they don’t limit themselves to your uploaded base image, Instead, they redraw everything – even if you instruct them not to. With scenes as iconic as these, the details of Mount Hood are preserved accurately because the models matched countless images to mine. It’s also important to note that when you upload an image, you’ve also just added it to the AI data horde (…again, paging The Borg collective!)

It’s less fun when lesser-photographed sides of the mountain are rendered. When the models lack scooped-up web content for context, they inevitably add features that aren’t there and revise features that are, revealing a propensity to improvise beyond the user query. This is the “rogue” phenomenon many AI critics are rightly concerned about. One curious, recurring example in my experience is morphing the lighting from a base image into evening “golden hour” light without any prompting – you can see this in both of the sample renderings above.

Correcting errors is perhaps the least enjoyable part of AI-assisted image creation. It’s something I would describe as trying to fine-tune delicate brush strokes with puffy oven mitts on both hands. The models often spiral into still more errors at this point, making working with them maddening, despite their otherwise uncanny power.

Sometimes, the AI errors veer wildly from reality, often comically. These are politely called “hallucinations” by the folks who write these algorithms. The following are some examples where it took multiple prompts to navigate the power AI tool back to realm of physical reality, with the models often repeating the hallucinations over and again.

This image is why Open AI always includes this disclaimer in tiny, nearly grayed-out print: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.” Important info? As in, how to extract hikers somehow fused into a picnic table? Well, at least they’re still enjoying the view..!

I’ll give this edit a 50 percent credit: when instructed to move “dad” from the end of the table to the far bench, the model complied, but only met me halfway. Dad’s lower torso and legs stayed behind, still seated in their original location. Still, AI dad’s upper half seems to be smiling and enjoying the picnic…

Beyond the glitches and hallucinations, there’s another concern with AI imagery that has become increasingly jarring the more I have used it. Without specific prompts, AI invariably generates humans as exclusively white, very fit and young. Always. In the examples above, deviations from this default are only because I specified “older” or “Latino” after the AI algorithm generated the young, white default version of humanity that it prefers.

This troubling bias has been widely critiqued, and deservedly so. But seeing it play out in your own work brings home the reality that the creators of this technology also happen to overwhelmingly align with the same narrow demographic their models churn out in imagery.

This is also one of the built-in, racist biases of AI that makes it so problematic in text generation. Yes, it’s easy enough to spot these patterns of race, gender or age bias in images, but it’s much harder to pick up the nuances that add up to systemic bias in text.

The following examples are from a sequence that required more than a dozen iterations between the AI default and a final, highly-edited version. Along the way, still more negative age and racial tropes crept in, unprompted – both a reflection of the tech creators and the information their AI engines glean from the internet. It’s jarring, but also an important reminder that it’s on us as users to carefully manage these tools against their built-in biases.

There’s a mix of truth and AI bias, here. While the outdoor community has historically been overwhelmingly white, a simple Google image search shows how much this has changed in recent years. Yet, AI consistently produces defaults like this because that’s what it has been trained on.

Asking AI to diversify the scene took many edits to get to an older couple seated and a Black couple standing. Is this scene so impossible in real life so as to have escaped the AI bots that perpetually comb the web? Therein, lies the built-in bias, along with many tired race and age stereotypes that continue to persist in AI-generated images.

If you’ve read this, far – thank you! My original goal with this article was to simply post an upgrade to the original Vista Ridge trailhead concept using AI-assisted imagery. But it felt awkward to drop a bunch of AI-enhanced images into the blog without some explanation of why and how I will use it going forward. Hopefully, this explanation does that!

Now, with all of these caveats, the second part of this article is a revisit a proposal from 2023 to re-imagine the Vista Ridge trailhead on Mount Hood’s north side – this time, presented with some help from AI to (hopefully) tell a more compelling story.

Re-imagining the Vista Ridge trailhead… again!

Only three years have passed since I first proposed a revamp to the Vista Ridge trailhead, yet the need has only grown. I could have said three “short” years, but the intervening time seems like an eternity when the current federal state of affairs is factored in.

Today, we find ourselves with a deeply hamstringed U.S. Forest Service doing its best to keep up with unwelcome mandates from an administration bent on looting our public lands – and with a skeleton staff that has been cut by as much as 30% by the same administration. These impacts on the Forest Service will take years to undo, and they make an even stronger argument to find fairly creative solutions to better manage overburdened sites like the Vista Ridge trailhead.

The Vista Ridge trailhead is really just the stub of a 1960s-era logging road whose construction was finally abandoned where it ends today. Thus, the chaotic jumble of cars that jam this dead-end on busy summer weekends, where simply turning a vehicle around becomes a challenge.

In recent years, the overflow from the parking area has spilled down the access road, create unsafe conditions in several spots that were never designed for two-way traffic or roadside parking.

There’s no warning for arriving hikers when the parking area is full, forcing folks to awkwardly turn around in a confined space, then find a spot along the access road – often encountering yet another incoming vehicle with no room to pass. Thankfully, there has never been a need to evacuate this trailhead in an emergency.

To tell a better story, I used AI to create a new map of the proposal. The new version still uses a Google Earth base, but AI allowed me to show the proposed one-way loop in a more realistic way. I was also able to “revegetate” some of the recently logged areas where a Forest Service thinning project was completed in 2020. As a tool, AI image generation did well on these fronts. But then it got clunky.

So, I ended up using the AI-generated map as a base, and added the rest of the map details – picnic tables, tents and tent sites, small buildings and all of the map notation – using conventional graphic applications. I also corrected some issues in the base image that AI just couldn’t figure out. One of the more frustrating of these is the Lego-block looking pattern that AI morphed the Google Earth tree canopy into. This turned into one of those spiraling dead-ends with AI that only got worse as I tried to nudge to tool back on track. AI won that battle, and thus the Lego Forest™ map.

(click on the map to enlarge)

A recurring question from the original article: so, why a one-way loop? It turns out these designs can provide the most efficient, managed format for parking. For convenience and efficiency, the design ensures that hikers arriving at the trailhead would always reach the closest available spot to the trailhead first. No need to circle.

More importantly, emergency responders would have a place to both park and turn large vehicles around, as well as evacuate people in the event of an emergency. To further protect hikers from cars, trails within the loop would connect to both the trailhead and the tent camping area, reducing the number of people walking along the loop road.

While the smaller details of the trailhead concept largely follows what I proposed back in 2023, I’ve included a solar-powered well in this update to provide on-site water. These off-the grid systems are an innovation that has grown in recent years in rural areas, and can cost as little as $3,000 to install on a conventional well. Providing on-site water would not only be good for hikers, it could also make the trailhead a fully serviced spot for emergency responders or fire fighters, and for Forest Service staff to maintain a proposed pit toilet – an element that was included in the original concept.

It’s not sexy, but it works. This is a pump house and well that is completely powered with solar panels, and thus off the grid. It’s a great new solution for backcountry trailheads and campground. Why not pilot one at a new Vista Ridge trailhead? (Photo: Georgia Bushcraft)

Another new feature in the concept is trailhead tent campsites. Why did I add these? The inspiration came from Trailkeepers of Oregon (TKO) events here in 2024 and 2025, when several volunteers arrived early and camped in the same area proposed here for walk-in tent sites. They raved about both the mountain views and the advantages of an early start for trail work on the Vista Ridge and Old Vista Ridge trails.

It’s true that this roadside camping spot is pretty ugly today, despite the fine view of Mount Hood. That’s thanks to the same 2020 forest thinning project that left a jumble of debris and piles of dirt behind. So, the idea of a tent camping area is to restore the site ecologically as well as provide a few tent sites.

It’s off the radar of most hikers, but bikepacking has become an important new form of recreation in WyEast Country, notably with the development of the Oregon Timber Trail. Why not provide bikepacking campsites with a view at a new Vista Ridge trailhead? (photo: Oregon Timber Trail Alliance)

Another inspiration for the trailhead campsites comes from bikepacking enthusiasts who now regularly travel Forest Road 16, the main forest road that the Vista Ridge spur road connects to. The idea is for these through-riders to have a quiet, free campsite with a water source and toilet – and a nice view. Yes, they would need to travel another 3.5 miles along the Vista Ridge spur road to get here, but developed campsites, a water source, toilets and picnic tables would make it well worth the effort.

An AI-Assisted Tour of the Vista Ridge Trailhead Concept

Moving from the updated concept map to the real power of AI, the next set of images are a virtual tour of the trailhead concept, with “before” (or real) images of today’s conditions transformed into AI-assisted versions of what could be.

The tour begins with the trailhead approach along the Vista Ridge access road (Forest Road 1650). Just before the road reaches the site of the proposed trailhead, an unsigned fork where another logging spur splits off to the right is a point of perpetual confusion. A very simple part of the new trailhead concept is signage to help folks navigate this spot.

This junction just before the trailhead has been unsigned for years, sending hikers to a long dead end in a sea of old clearcuts if they go right instead of left.

A simple proposal in this confusing spot – a trailhead sign, designed with the help of AI

As you can see in the concept map, the turnaround loop is more oval than round. A recently impacted clearing at the heart of the oval was once a log yarding area, and more recently held equipment for the forest thinning operation. Taking advantage of an already impacted area, this clearing is where the main trailhead amenities would be located, including informational signage, water, toilet and picnic tables. This photo series is the view looking north from the existing Vista Ridge access road, into the proposed trailhead site.

The most recent disturbance in the clearing at the heart of the trailhead concept came in 2020, when this old yarding area from past clearcutting activity became a logistic area for a forest thinning operation.

Today, the clearing still shows the impacts from the most recent logging operation. It’s a good candidate for restoration of native understory – mostly beargrass and huckleberry – as part of creating a new trailhead.

This is an AI-assisted reimagining of the clearing at the heart of the new trailhead loop showing a picnic tables, toilet, water supply and an information signboard. The cars pictured are parked parallel, along the one-way loop.

While the core focus for the loop is to locate the new road on already impacted land, it would nonetheless represent 1,300 feet of new, gravel road. The conservation tradeoff would come from decommissioning the last 2,800 feet of the existing road, converting it become an extension of the Vista Ridge Trail, with an overall reduction in road coverage of about 1,500 feet.

The half-mile road section proposed for trail conversion also cuts across two talus slopes that are active Pika habitat, so removing the vehicle traffic could be an important benefit to these colonies, especially with overflow vehicles now parking along the talus sections.

The next view in the virtual tour is from the perspective of the picnickers in the previous photo series, looking south toward Mount Hood. This would be the view from the picnic area, with tent campsites proposed across the access road. As with the rest of the concept, the emphasis is two-pronged: combine development of a new trailhead with ecological restoration of already impacted areas.

This is a view of the logged area across the access road from the clearing shown in the previous image series. The jumble of debris and piles of dirt left behind in this forest thinning operation offer an opportunity to restore the site in tandem with creating walk-in tent sites.

The view today from the cleared area at the heart of the proposed loop, looking toward the recently logged area on the south side of the existing road.

A reimagined version of the scene showing the proposed picnic area in the foreground and a path leading across the access road to tent sites in a restored logged area. The fine mountain view from here would turn otherwise generic picnic and tent sites into something special and memorable.

Another community that could benefit from these reimagined scenes are local tribes who actively harvest first foods in the Vista Ridge area, especially huckleberries. The logging operation that occurred in 2020 was presented in part as forest thinning to improve huckleberry habitat. Providing enhanced access, campsites and other on-site facilities to support tribes harvesting in the area could be one of the best arguments for moving forward with the idea.

Next, the virtual tour of the proposed trailhead moves to the half-mile section of today’s access road that would be converted to trail. This short section of road has stunning views that make it a fine candidate for conversion. The easy grade and existing gravel surface could also offer the possibility of a rare accessible trail to these viewpoints, something WyEast Country is woefully lacking in.

This spot along today’s access road is about a half mile from the current trailhead. This is where the proposed trailhead loop road would veer left on an old cat road and the remainder of the existing road would be converted to trail.

Here’s the AI-assisted reimagining of what the road-to-trail conversion would look like. The hikers shown here have just emerged from a short access trail (shown on the concept map) that would link parking within the trailhead loop to the new start of the Vista Ridge Trail with minimal road walking.

Moving just beyond the proposed trailhead, this photo set shows what a typical road-to-trail conversion might look like.

This is today’s access road a few yards beyond the proposed new trailhead…

…and this is what a road-to-trail conversion might look like. The wide trail and retained gravel surface are included to envision what an accessible trail could look like. Conversions like these typically involve using a backhoe along one or both shoulders of the road to break up the packed road surface and allow for restoring vegetation. In mountainous areas like this, large rocks and boulders often come to the surface as well, and they can be placed as shown both define the trail and protect against off-road vehicles.

Just 200 yards from the proposed new trailhead, today’s Vista Ridge road crosses a talus slope with a stunning view of Mount Hood, enhanced in autumn with drifts of crimson vine maple. There are already pullouts along the road here, worn by photographers stopping to capture this scene – one that has appeared widely in calendars, books and advertising. Anyone capturing photos here is also likely to be serenaded by the Pika colonies living in the talus. These pullouts would become the main destination for the accessible portion of the road-to-trail conversion, as visualized in the following image sequence (look closely at the concept map and you will also see disabled parking spots).

This scene has deservedly appeared in scenic calendars and tourism ads over the years – but with the road cropped out. Colonies of tiny Pikas live here and can often be heard if you’re not inside a car.

Here’s a reimagined scene with the road converted to trail, the road’s shoulders restored with native huckleberry and beargrass.

Here’s a version with one of the existing road pullouts converted to a spot for or a picnic or simply resting and enjoying the view.

Even better, here’s an accessible picnic and resting spot with a wider tread connecting the proposed trailhead to this viewpoint.

Beyond the talus viewpoint the existing road still offers pocket views as is it continues toward today’s trailhead. The following images show what this section of today’s road might look like if were converted to become part of the Vista Ridge Trail.

Today, this pretty section of the Vista Ridge road too often has cars wedged along the shoulders when the trailhead parking is overflowing….

…but reimagined, it might look like this, with a trail wide enough to continue serving as an accessible path.

Where today’s Vista Ridge road approaches the existing trailhead parking, it crosses another large talus slope, this time composed of striking, red volcanic boulders uncommon to the Mount Hood area. Tiny Pikas live here, too, though you have to walk the road to hear them. This photo set imagines what this road conversion might look like.

The second talus slope today with the trailhead parking area visible in the distance. On busy days, overflow cars are often parked precariously along this section of road.

A reimagined view of the unique volcanic talus slope, with today’s road converted to trail. Red lava landscapes like this are a rare sight on Mount Hood, making this a special place worth celebrating.

This images in this set are viewed from the opposite direction, looking toward the red talus slope from the existing trailhead parking.

This view shows today’s overflowing trailhead parking spilling onto the shoulders of the access road.

Here’s an AI reimagining of this is what that view might look like if the road were converted to trail.

And what of today’s parking area? Could it really be converted to trail and restored to a natural condition? Definitely. The surrounding subalpine grows on a very thin layer of mountain soils atop a rocky base – the same boulders we can see on nearby talus slopes are only a few inches beneath the surface (with some are poking through, as evidenced by scars left from cars scraping on them). Using the road conversion approach described previously, a backhoe would be used to break up the packed surface and loosen the ground replanting. Unearthed rocks and boulders could be used to define the new trail.

Look closely at the left edge in this view of today’s Vista Ridge trailhead and you can see the forest already creeping into the old road bed that makes up today’s parking area. Restoring vegetation here is mostly a matter of breaking up the old road surface.

Here’s an AI-assisted reimagination of what the old trailhead parking could look like when converted to trail. Though nature would eventually restore the understory on her own, revegetating the area could be accelerated by planting native beargrass, huckleberry and kinnikinnick, as shown in this view.

When I first proposed this trailhead concept three years ago, another recurring comment was about the additional half-mile it would add to the Vista Ridge trail, a popular access route to the Timberline Trail. It’s a fair concern, and as a 64-year-old who also uses this trail regularly, I appreciate the significance to many hikers of the distance it would add.

So, why did I come up with this concept, then? In the end, it’s a tradeoff. We need a solution to what has become an unworkable degree of overcrowding at the existing trailhead, and I don’t see a way to solve that at existing trailhead site, given the steep terrain. After all, it only was built to serve as a logging spur, not a parking lot.

Thus, the proposed move downhill to the nearest flat spot, and one that has already been impacted by logging. As roads go, this section is also exceptionally scenic, making it a great candidate for conversion. Add the possibility of converting that half-mile of road to become an accessible trail so folks with limited mobility might also enjoy a spectacular mountain trail experience – people who are unable to hike three miles uphill to the Timberline Trail? That could be the best argument of all for moving ahead with this concept.

Early snow on the mountain in 2023 from the talus viewpoint along the Vista Ridge road – let’s make this a premier accessible trail destination!

Finally, where would the money come from in this weird time of federal chaos? That part is easier than you might expect. While the current administration has done its best to slow-walk or cancel funding that Congress passed in a series of massive COVID-era infrastructure bills, the fact is, much funding has been authorized for projects like this. These funds may be bottled right now, but they will eventually become available to our federal land agencies.

Now is the time to be creative and dream a little – and thus this article to refresh and put an updated face on an idea whose time has come.

Thanks for reading this far!

As always, I hope to see you on the trail sometime!

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Tom Kloster | October 2026

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Postscript: this article was edited to better clarify that my use of AI tools on will be strictly limited to creating illustrative graphics, not to create or enhance photos. I’ll be adding a more detailed explanation in the “About the Photos” section of the blog, but my plan going forward is to an AI watermark to graphics using the technology.

Rx for the Vista Ridge Trailhead!

/ Tom Kloster / 6 Comments

Mount Hood’s scenic wonders beckon on the final approach to the Vista Ridge trailhead on Forest Road 1650

Public lands across the nation experienced a big spike in visitors during the recent pandemic, continuing a growth trend that has been in motion for decades. In WyEast Country, this has placed an unprecedented burden on some of Mount Hood’s under-developed trailheads, like the one at Vista Ridge, on the mountain’s north side. 

The scenic gems within a few miles of this trailhead are among the mountain’s most iconic: Cairn Basin, Eden Park, Elk Cove, WyEast Basin and Owl Point draw hikers here, despite the washboards along the dusty final gravel road stretch – and the completely inadequate trailhead. 

The Vista Ridge is located on Mount Hood’s rugged north side and reached from Lolo Pass Road

The pandemic isn’t the only driver in the growing popularity of Vista Ridge. The 2011 Dollar Lake Fire torched Vista Ridge, leaving a vast ghost forest behind. In the years since, the forest recovery has featured a carpet of Avalanche Lilies in early summer that draws still more visitors to this trailhead. And since 2007, volunteers have restored the Old Vista Ridge trail to Owl Point, adding yet another popular hiking destination here.

It is abundantly apparent to anyone using the existing Vista Ridge trailhead that it was never designed or developed to be one. Instead, it was the result of a plan during the logging heyday of the 1960s to extend Forest Road 1650 over the crest of Vista Ridge and connect to the growing maze of logging roads to the east, in the Clear Branch valley. 

For reasons unknown, that never happened, and by the late 1960s the road stub defaulted into an unimproved trailhead for the Vista Ridge Trail when a short trail connection from the road stub to the saddle was built, instead. This new trail connection short-circuited the northern two miles of the Vista Ridge trail, but has since been restored reopened as the Old Vista Ridge trail. This is how today’s Vista Ridge trailhead came to be on a steep hillside at the abrupt end of a defunct logging spur.

The existing Vista Ridge trailhead is simply a logging spur that was abandoned mid-construction in the 1960s, and thus lacks even a simple turnaround

While it was still lightly used as recently as the early 2000s, the popularity of the Vista Ridge trailhead has grown dramatically over the past 15 years. Today, dozens of cars are shoehorned into this dead-end spur during the busy summer hiking season.

Parking at the trailhead is a haphazard affair, at best. There is room for about 6 cars along the south edge of the stub, though it was never graded for this purpose, and thus even these “spaces” are a minefield of sneaky, axel-cracking pits and oil-pan ripping boulders. These semi-organized spaces fill immediately on summer days, so most who come here end up parking at the stubbed-out end of the spur or spill out along the narrow final approach of Road 1650. 

Overflow from the cramped existing trailhead routinely spills over to the narrow Road 1650 approach during the summer hiking season

Spillover parking on this section of Road 1650 is only unsafe for passing vehicles, it also impacts a resident Pika population living in these talus slopes

Because the existing trailhead was never designed or graded as a parking area, visitors must navigate large boulders and deep pits to find parking

The scars on this boulder are testimony to the real damage caused by the lack of an improved parking surface at the existing Vista Ridge trailhead

The constrained, chaotic parking at the Vista Ridge Trailhead and resulting overflow on busy weekends is frustrating enough for visitors, but it also creates a safety problem for emergency response. This trailhead provides the best access to the northern part of the Mount Hood Wilderness, yet there is often no way to turn a vehicle around in summer, much less park a fire truck or ambulance here.

The overflow parking on the narrow access road is not only stressful an potentially dangerous for visitors to navigate, it also creates an access problem for larger emergency vehicles attempting to reach the trailhead

This visitor was forced to back nearly 1/4 mile down the access road after reaching the full parking lot and overflow shoulder parking that left no room to turn around

The origins of the short trail connector from today’s trailhead to the historic Vista Ridge Trail has unclear origins, it appears to have been built between 1963 and 1967, and it was clearly intended to replace the northern portion of the Vista Ridge Trail – the section that has since been restored as the Old Vista Ridge Trail.  

While most of the short connector trail is a well-constructed and graded route through dense forest, the first 200 yards are a miserable, rocky mess where the “trail” is really just a rough track that was bulldozed for a planned extension of the logging spur, but never fully graded. This sad introduction to the wonders that lie ahead is a frustrating chore to hike – and an ankle-twisting nightmare to re-negotiate at the end of your hike. 

This signpost is the sole “improvement” at the Vista Ridge trailhead, leaving much room for improvement at what has become one of Mount Hood’s most popular trailheads

The first 1/3 mile of the Vista Ridge trail follows an abandoned, partially constructed section of logging spur that has significant surface and drainage problems that also leave much room for improvement as the gateway to this popular area

Add to these trailhead and trail condition woes an ongoing lack of proper signage to help people actually find Vista Ridge, and you have a discouraging start to what should be stellar wilderness experience for visitors – many from around the country and even the world. Thus, the following: a proposal to finally fix these issues at Vista Ridge and give this sub-par portal into the Mount Hood Wilderness the attention it has long deserved.

The Proposal…

The problems that plague the existing Vista Ridge Trailhead all stem from its accidental location on the steep mountainside. As a result, there is no way to safely accommodate needed parking, a turnaround or other trailhead amenities in the current location. The good news is that flat ground lies about 1/2 mile away, where Road 1650 passes an already disturbed site that was part of a recent logging operation.

This map shows the proposed new trailhead site – roughly 1/2 mile northwest of the existing trailhead – and the section of existing road (highlighted in yellow) that would be converted to trail

To make this new location work, the section of Road 1650 from the proposed new trailhead to the old (highlighted above in yellow) would be converted to trail. Normally, adding a half-mile of converted road to a hike would be a minus, but this segment of Road 1650 is stunning (see below), with spectacular views of Mount Hood. The talus slopes that provide these views are also home to colonies of Pika that provide their distinctive “meep!” as you pass through – something that can’t be appreciated from a car.

Converted roads don’t always make for great trails, but the approach to the existing Vista Ridge trailhead is exceptionally scenic and would make for a fine gateway trail to the Mount Hood Wilderness

The first step in creating the new trailhead (and even without the new trailhead) would be restored signage to help visitors find their way from Lolo Pass Road to Vista Ridge, especially at the confusing fork (below) located just short of the proposed trailhead.

Finding the Vista Ridge trailhead is a challenge. The signpost at this crucial fork just below the trailhead had lost its sign in this view from two years ago, but the entire post has since disappeared. A new trailhead would include restoring directional signage to help visitors navigate the route

Next up, the obvious spot for the new trailhead (below) is a yarding area from a logging operation that was impacted more recently with a nearby thinning project. Dirt logging spurs radiate in all directions from this cleared area, allowing for new trailhead parking to incorporate these already impacted areas to minimize environmental impacts.

The proposed new trailhead site was previously disturbed with a logging operations

Until recently, the proposed new parking area faced a wall of trees to the south, but a tree thinning project on the opposite side of Road 1650 has suddenly provided a Mount Hood view (below). The purpose of the thinning was to enhance forest health by removing smaller, crowded plantation trees to promote huckleberries in the understory – an important first food harvested by area tribes. 

Should the huckleberries thrive as planned and bring berry harvesters to the area, this could be another benefit of providing trailhead parking here. For now, the thinning just provide a sneak-peak at the mountain that lie ahead for hikers or a backdrop for people using picnic tables at the trailhead (more about that in a moment).

The proposed new trailhead is directly across Road 1650 from a recently thinned area

It looks pretty grim now, but the tree thinning project across from the proposed is intended to spur the huckleberry understory to allow for berry harvesting… eventually

The concept for the new trailhead parking is to use an old dirt logging spur that splits off the Vista Ridge Road as the entrance to the parking loop. The existing Road 1650 would be closed and converted to trail from this point forward. The logging spur is shown on the left in the photo below, along with the portion of Road 1650 where the trail conversion would begin. The existing trailhead lies about 1/2 mile from this point.

The existing road conversion to trail would begin here, with the new parking access following the logging spur on the left

Roughly 200 yards beyond the proposed trailhead, the views open up along existing Road 1650 where it crosses the first of two talus slopes (below). This is one of those “wow!” spots that comes as a surprise to hikers as they drive to the existing trailhead. The right half (downhill) in this converted section of the existing road would be retained as trail, the left (uphill) side would be decommissioned.

The final 1/2 mile of Road 1950 is scenic in all seasons, with Beargrass blooms in early summer and brilliant fall colors emerging by late summer

How does this work? The decommissioning of the uphill half of the existing road could be accomplished by upturning the surface with a backhoe – a process used to decommission miles of logging roads in recent years around Mount Hood country. The scene below is a typical example from a decommissioned road near Black Lake, located a few miles north of Mount Hood, on Waucoma Ridge. In this example, the goal was to completely retire the road, though the same method can be used to convert a road to single-track trail.

This road near Black Lake was decommissioned in the early 2000s and is gradually revegetating

Just beyond the first “wow!” talus viewpoint, the mountain comes into view once again along the existing Road 1650 as it crosses the second talus slope, just before reaching the existing trailhead. This slope here is unique in that it consists of red lava (below), a somewhat uncommon sight around Mount Hood that adds to the scenic beauty. Like the first talus section, this slope is also home to Pika colonies, adding to the trail experience. The right half of the converted road would be retained as trail here, and the left (uphill) side decommissioned.

Without overflow parking blocking the view, the final stretch of the access road passes this scenic and somewhat unusual talus slope composed of red lava rocks

Beyond the practical benefits of moving the Vista Ridge trailhead to make it safer and more functional, there are also compelling conservation arguments for the move. First, it would allow the Forest Service to retire another segment of old logging road – and though only 1/2 mile in length, in its current state it nonetheless contributes to the massive backlog of failing roads built during the logging heyday that the agency can no longer afford to maintain.

There are also noisy (meep!) wildlife benefits, as the Pika colonies living in both talus slopes are likely impacted by the noise, vibration and pollution that the steady stream of hikers bring as they drive – and increasingly park – along this scenic section of road.

Because most road-to-trail conversions around Mount Hood have been driven by wilderness boundary expansions, washouts or other abrupt events, there aren’t many examples of intentional conversions to point to. Instead, most conversions are simply abandoned roadbeds that nature is gradually reclaiming, like the section of the Elk Cove trail shown below.

The lower section of the Elk Cove Trail follows an old logging road that was simply closed, but not formally converted to trail

Beyond often being a hot, dusty trudge for hikers looking for a true trail experience, old roads that aren’t intentionally converted also lack proper trail design features for stormwater runoff and drainage, as seen on the opening section of the existing Vista Ridge trail. Abandoned roads also lead to thickets of brush and young trees as the forest moves in, making maintenance of trails that follow these routes a constant chore. It simply makes more sense to undertake true conversions from road to trail on these routes in the long run.

Recently converted road-to-trail at Salmon Butte (Oregon Hikers)

There are very good examples of intentional conversions, and among the best is the Salmon Butte Trail, where the Forest Service decommissioned a section of road in 2010 and intestinally created meandering trail through mounds of earth along the old roadbed to further conceal evidence of the road from hikers. Just a few years after the conversion (above) the signs of the old road were already fading fast, creating a more authentic trail experience. Self-sustaining drainage features were also incorporated into the design. The same approach could be applied to decommission both the final road section and the current trailhead parking area at Vista Ridge.

Finally, improvements to the opening stretch of the existing Vista Ridge trail that also follows old roadbed is in order. This short section (below) is typical of a road that wasn’t property converted to trail, and as a result suffers from serious runoff erosion during the winter and spring. The result is a cobbled mess that is hard on ankles and morale as hikers set off for their hike. 

If this looks like a dry streambed, that’s because it is! It’s also the opening 1/3 mile section of the Vista Ridge Trail where it follows an abandoned, partly constructed road bed that becomes a running stream in the winter months

There are some basic trail drainage features that could keep this section from becoming a river during the wet months. Next, some of the most miserably rocky sections could be covered with gravel – but from where? It turns out the Forest Service left a couple of large piles (below) where today’s trailhead is located when work on extending this road was abandoned more than 50 years ago. 

A Northwest Youth Corps crew did just this about a decade ago, but because the drainage problem wasn’t addressed, most of that first layer of gravel has been washed away and their efforts long since erased.There are some basic trail drainage features that could keep this section from becoming a river during the wet months. Next, some of the most miserably rocky sections could be covered with gravel – but from where? It turns out the Forest Service left a couple of large piles (below) where today’s trailhead is located when work on extending this road was abandoned more than 50 years ago. 

Let’s put this leftover pile of gravel from the logging days to work!

How a parking loop would work…

Putting it all together, this proposal (below) shows how the new trailhead parking could be accomplished as a parking loop, as opposed to a parking lot. The inset images include an aerial image of the current, dead-end trailhead parking at the same scale as the proposed loop map for direct comparison. The topographic inset map shows the proposed trailhead and parking loop, along with the proposed road conversion in relation to the existing trailhead (be sure to click on “large version” link below for a closer look!) 

[click here for a large version]

Why a loop? First, it’s the least impactful on the environment. Instead of clearing a wide area to provide room for cars to back in and out, the parking is simply provided along the right shoulder of the loop – like parallel parking in the city – but with nature left intact inside the “donut hole” of the loop.  

In this case, the loop would follow a series of old logging skid roads, further minimizing the impact on the forest. But perhaps most importantly from an environmental impact perspective, adding a couple hundred yards of new loop road here would allow a half-mile section of existing road to be retired and converted to trail, a clear net gain, overall.

Busy trailheads call for amenities like improved signage and toilets – and space for emergency vehicles to have access. These vehicles were called to the trailhead where a hiker was injured in the Clackamas River area – fortunately, the trailhead was located along a paved forest road with ready access and space to turn around

Another important benefit of a loop is to provide a much-needed turnaround at the end of a dead-end road for forest rangers and emergency responders. This might be the most compelling reason to fix the Vista Ridge trailhead sooner than later, as today’s overflowing dead-end parking area is a disaster waiting to happen should fire trucks or other emergency vehicles need to access the Vista Ridge trail on a busy weekend.  

Designing the parking loop…

From a user perspective, a parking loop is efficient and easy to navigate. The one-way design ensures that people arriving here would always reach the closest available parking spot to the trailhead first. This is the opposite of the current dead-end trailhead, where hikers arriving later in the day often park in less-than-safe spots along the access road when they see overflow shoulder parking occurring, for fear of not being able to turn around in the cramped trailhead lot – often after spaces have opened up in the main parking area.

As shown in the parking schematic (above), the relocated trailhead would accommodate up to 30 vehicles along a 1,100-foot-long loop – or about three times what the current dead-end parking area allows. The loop would be gravel-surfaced, 16-feet wide and designed to flow one-way in a counter-clock-wise direction, with shoulder parking allowed on the right side.

The new trailhead could also be a Northwest Forest Pass site with the required toilets, picnic tables and welcoming signage for visitors, something that the space constraints at the current lot would not allow. These could be located in the “donut hole” center of the loop. Making this a forest pass site would also address one of the more dire needs at Vista Ridge – a toilet! The heavy use at the trailhead and steep terrain has turned a couple of more accessible trees adjacent to the parking area into de-facto toilets, with unpleasant results. 

Industrial toilets at a busy trailhead in the Columbia Gorge – functional, but not exactly a complement to the outdoor experience!

The Forest Service has upped its game with pit toilets in recent year at some Northwest Forest Pass sites, replacing industrial porta-potties (above) that are the last thing you want to see as you set off for a wilderness experience with more aesthetic toilets, like the one at the High Prairie trailhead (below), just east of Mount Hood. This would be a great choice for a new trailhead at Vista Ridge.

Rustic toilet design at the High Prairie trailhead, gateway to the Badger Creek Wilderness

The are also more substantial examples around Mount Hood that are wheelchair accessible, like this one at the Billy Bob snow park near Lookout Mountain (below).

Accessible, rustic toilet design at the Billy Bob snow park near Lookout Mountain

Why an accessible toilet? Because there’s also an opportunity for the converted road section in this proposal to incorporate an accessible trail surface to at least one of the talus viewpoints along the way – like this well-photographed spot along the existing road (below), located just a few hundred yards from the proposed trailhead. 

This view is from the shoulder of the current access road, just a few hundred yards from the proposed new Vista Ridge trailhead. Converting the road to an accessible trail design and providing some simple amenities (e.g., a picnic table) would make this a welcome new destination for people with limited mobility or who use mobility devices

Accessible trail opportunities are in woefully short supply around Mount Hood, an unacceptable reality. There’s room at this viewpoint for an accessible picnic table, benches and perhaps interpretive signage — allowing for the extended Vista Ridge trail to serve a wider spectrum of visitors and abilities, not just able-bodied hikers heading into the wilderness.

What would it take?

There are two main parts to this proposal: (1) building the new parking loop and (2) converting the final half-mile section of Road 1650 to become a trail. The first part – the parking loop, pit toilets, picnic tables, signage and other trailhead amenities — would have to be built by the Forest Service. However, this work could likely be fast-tracked as an exemption under the environmental review process, since it involves relocating an existing parking area and would result in much less roadway than the current trailhead. That environmental analysis would also have to be completed by the Forest Service.

The second part of this proposal — the road-to-trail conversion — could be completed as a partnership between the Forest Service and volunteers, like Trailkeepers of Oregon (TKO), who already maintain the Old Vista Ridge and Vista Ridge trails. The Forest Service could complete the rough backhoe work to reduce the converted road to single track, and volunteer crews could finalize the tread and drainage on the converted trail. 

Volunteers could also install viewpoint benches and picnic tables for an accessible trail and trailhead signage at the new parking area. Some of the heavier work could be contracted to organizations like the Northwest Youth Corps, which has a long history of trail work around Mount Hood.

Northwest Youth Corp crew working on the Vista Ridge Trail

How could this concept move forward? Funding is always a concern for the Forest Service, but there’s also unprecedented funding coming online right now for the federal agencies from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. This project could compete for these funds, many of which are competitive, especially if it includes an accessible trail. Creating a new Northwest Forest Pass site would also generate revenue (in theory) to help maintain the new trailhead. 

Volunteer crews from TKO are already working from this trailhead every summer to maintain the Vista Ridge and Old Vista Ridge trails. The over-crowding at the existing trailhead has already made their work more difficult, so contributing to the trail conversion effort would be a natural fit for TKO volunteers to be part of.

The author on the Old Vista Ridge trail

In the meantime, if you want to experience the wonders of Vista Ridge and Old Vista Ridge, the best plan is to avoid this trailhead on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from July through mid-September. If you must go on those days, then it’s not a bad idea to simply park on the shoulder of Road 1650 where this new trailhead is proposed, and simply walk the scenic final half mile to the current trailhead. You’ll get mountain views, hear the local pikas calling out, avoid the stressful chaos of the existing trailhead – and with any luck, you’ll be getting a preview of things to come!

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Tom Kloster | August 2023