Hideaway Lake Campground - Mt. Hood National Forest
T
Reviewed May. 18, 2020

What a mistake

I used the get directions button. Followed the map.

First off the reviews said phone service there. How? Cell reception drops before even getting to the Forest Road.

To say the road is a little rough is a HUGE understatement. The closer I got to this lake the worse the road got. It went from a decent graveled two lane road to a one lane road, then a dirt road with potholes, to a very narrow dirt track. There was winter storm damage everywhere. Many trees had fallen across the road but the road had been cleared. Still some of the tree branches would rub the side of my car. I would have turned around but there was simply no place to do that. I moved forward hoping to find some way to turn around. Then the road had a large area that was just mud. On the right the land rapidly rose and on the left the land sloped rapidly down into a ravine. Going as slow as possible through the mud I felt the car start to slide towards the ravine. My years of driving prevented the slide down into the ravine. Push on looking for any turn place to turn around. The road became worse and the fallen trees become more abundant. Branches brushing the car almost constant. One of the fallen trees must have been precariously balanced because I heard the scrape on the side of the car and suddenly there was a tree trunk smashing through my windshield. Had there been a passenger in my car they would have died. I did manage to find enough room to turn around a bit farther down the road. After what was a very painful 20 point turn around I made my way out of the nightmare experience and limped back to civilization.