Mirror Lake has always been one of the most popular hiking trails at Mount Hood forest. The trail itself is only about 1.9 miles long with 700 feet of elevation gain. The trail itself is rather easy. In the past few years, the trail head has been moved right beside Ski Bowl to make more parking spaces available to the hikers. This had made the trail more accessible to people since the original trail head was just off the highway.
We got to Mirror Lake trail head around 8:30AM in the morning. The weather was great on this day and was quite warm. The trail started off with paved path heading downwards into the forest. The trail first headed West and crossed many wooden bridges. After about 50% into the trail, the trail started to ascend at a reasonable pace.
After about 40 minutes, we got to Mirror Lake. As we went to the lake shore, we saw few dogs enjoying the swim in the water. There were people fishing there too.
Since it was still early in the day, we decided to go further on the trail and head to the top of Tom Dick and Harry Mountain. It was another 1.7 miles upwards. This part of the trail was rockier and narrower than the previous portion of the trail, but it was totally doable for anyone.
After about 40 minutes, we got to the top of the mountain. From the top we could see Mount Hood clearly in front of us. It was an amazing scenery. We saw down and enjoy some snack at the top and there were several dogs up there enjoying the sun. After a while, it started to get quite windy however.
As we headed back down the trail, we saw even more hikers with their lovely dogs. We didn't think that this trail was popular for dogs too.
Overall, Mirrow Lake was a beautiful trail and family friendly. This trail is definitely on the highly recommended list for Oregon hikers.