Local’s Locales: Mt. Hood Highway
Local’s Locales is a new CatlinSpeak series highlighting fun locales Portlanders love.
The 56-mile approach on Highway 26 from Portland to Government Camp on Mt. Hood trafficks thousands of skiers, truckers, and commuters daily. These are the four best spots to check on your next drive up.
The original route for Highway 26 came from Indigenous trade routes linking the American Southwest and Columbia Plateau to the Willamette Valley. White settlers and fur traders followed the route to create the Barlow Road in 1846. The highway itself was built by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration from 1933 to 1950.
Today, the highway is most popular among recreationalists, local commuters, and thru-truckers.
La Salle senior and backcountry skier Ben-Scott Lewis says, “I’m a big fan of 26 because it gets me to Mt. Hood!”
The highway is also popular for commuters; an estimated 15,000 people live in between Sandy and Government Camp, serving 230 businesses, from auto body shops to the Zigzag Inn.
Furthermore, truckers use Highway 26 and 97 as an alternative to I-5 and Highway 22 from the Portland Metro area to the Bend metro area, transporting goods from lumber to livestock.
Now that you know the history, check out these Local’s Locales on your next trip!
257th Avenue
If you live north of Division St, you probably take Interstate 84 east, then a north-south connector road through Gresham to get to Highway 26 east.
The two fastest routes through Gresham from 84 to 26 are 238th and 257th. Most Hood-bound Portlanders take Exit 16 to 238th, following their friends, their car’s navigation, and even official highway signs reading “Mt. Hood: Exit 16.”
While you can’t blame the masses for taking the shorter route, you can use them to your advantage. Google Maps traffic comparisons between 238th and 257th Avenue southbound between 7-9 a.m. over three Saturdays showed taking 257th averages two minutes faster than taking 238th.
Take Exit 17 and make a right on 257th for less traffic and a better spot in the parking lot.
Joe’s Donuts
If you live in South Portland and don’t take 84, you probably take 212 from Clackamas, joining the hordes at Mile 20 on 26.
After this junction, Joe’s Donuts in Sandy is the first breakfast food. The new conglomeration of hungry commuters hits Sandy around 7:45.
“That’s peak time for Joe’s,” says Brandy, a longtime employee of Joe’s Donuts. “About half our customers are headed up to the mountain, but it’s kind of weather dependent,” she said. “We’re the most popular spot in Sandy, though, because we sell sno-park passes and have been around almost 50 years.”
Joe’s sells 12 varieties of donuts, all under $1.50, to fuel your next mountain adventure.
Silent Rock
During the construction of the Mt. Hood Highway in the 1940s, a large andesite rock stood right in the path around Mile 49. Instead of letting the road descend into the Camp Creek Valley southeast of the rock, “builders blasted the rock in two,” says ODOT public information officer Don Hamilton. “It was just the simple and cheap option.” Thus was formed the dramatic curve of Silent Rock.
But the Rock is more than a physical thing-- it’s a cultural element of the highway. When you drive through the Rock, you must turn off your radio and “shut your gaper piehole,” according to merch company silentrock.net.
CGS senior Michael Putz abides by a simple policy when driving through the rock, consisting only of “Shut up!”
Origin stories of the superstition include truck accidents, construction worker deaths, and Native Americans throwing “silencing rocks” in the mouths of rivals.
Whatever the origin, the Rock is sacred. Turn off the bops, shut your chops, then send some drops!
Dairy Queen in Rhododendron
You’re driving down from the mountain, still drying off from seven hours of sleet. What’s the first thing you want? Food. And as fast as possible. You keep your eyes peeled on the drive down 26.
All of the sudden, it’s there. A beautiful tall, red, plastic sign reading: “DQ.”
“We’re the first thing you see when you start coming down the mountain,”says Dairy Queen employee Angela Harrel, who owns and operates the Rhododendron franchise with her family.
Tired skiers make up only about 50% of the midweek customer base at this location, but “during the weekends, it’s majority travelers coming to or over the mountain most likely,” states Harrel.
If you’re really intent on hitting that DQ, go in the morning--before your ski day--for a Blizzard and fries.
“Peak times are from 2-5 p.m. when the night skiers are heading up the mountain and the early skiers are heading down,” adds Harrel.
Above all, Harrel wants your family to leave DQ with more than full stomachs.
“We are in the business of making memories, and it seems like a lot of people have some pretty sweet memories attached to our store,” said Harrel.
Thanks so much for reading the first article of Locale’s Locales. Hopefully, this piece inspires you to hit the slopes with your friends and family (masks on, of course). If you visit one of these Locales (or all four Locales in one day!) link an Instagram album in the comments below. See you on the snow!