Mirror Lake is located in Mount Hood forest and it is about an hour East of Portland. The trail head of Mirror Lake is directly off Highway 26 and thus brought a lot of traffic to this terrific hiking trail. The trail itself is about 1.6 miles long that goes to Mirror Lake and makes a loop around the lake. There are also camp sites for backpackers around the lake on first come first server basis.
We left our home around 7:30AM and got to Mirror Lake trail head around 9AM. When we got there, the parking lot at Mirror Lake was completely filled. It was also a small parking lot, so if you want to get a parking spot there, you will have to come before 8AM. Since we cannot find a parking spot, we drove a mile further and parked the car at Ski Bowl. Ski Bowl requires you to purchase a parking permit during the winter, but parking is free during the summer. Also, there is restroom if you need to use it. After we parked our car, we walked back down on the side of Highway 26 to the trail head. The side of Highway 26 is easy enough for people to walk on, just be careful for some pot holes.
The Mirror Lake hiking trail starts with a narrow wooden bridge for people to walk across the creek. Then we entered the forest and it was pretty dark in the forest even though it was a sunny bright day. The trail elevates a little bit, but not much elevation gain here. Along the hiking trail, we also saw many chipmunks following us around. Note that do not feed the chipmunks even though they look really cute when they are begging for food!. After around 5 switchbacks, we reached the lake!
The lake surface was very calm and reflected the mountain and the trees. From the South side of the lake, we could see Mount Hood and its reflection on the lake! There were some part of the trail where we walked through the marsh but it is not too big of a deal. Many people brought chairs and picnic sets to enjoy the day there. There were also people who brought canoes with them.
Overall, Mirror Lake is a great place to spend the summer weekend at and enjoy the nature. It is definitely a great spot to just sit there for the entire afternoon and enjoy the sun shine.
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