Bennett Pass Sno-Park to Bonney Butte

11.4 miles of hiking • 1500' elevation gain •

It was one of those days where we thought things were just going to go wrong, but, it ended up being a fantastic day! We planned on hiking on the east side of the Gorge, but, once on the freeway, we saw clouds in that direction. By the time we reached Hood River, the clouds were thick. We decided not to do our planned hike. We drove up highway 35 to Mt. Hood, finally getting above the clouds. An hour later, after finally finding a place with a Sno-Park day pass available for purchase, we were ready to hike. We decided to go to the less crowded, Bennett Pass Sno-Park and walk the snow covered road to Bonney Butte. Once we were a mile out, we saw no one! We used micro spikes, which weren't necessary, but, gave us some added traction. The cliffs on the Terrible Traverse section of the road were not snowy, but we could see why you wouldn't want to spend time there on an avalanche prone day. Once we reached the Bonney Meadows Road junction, tire tracks from a recently driven vehicle really helped pack the snow for easy walking. The spur road to Bonney Butte required us to break trail through about six plus inches of snow, in spots. As we reached the last stretch, we noticed what we guessed were mountain lion tracks going to the top of the butte. At the top, it was 360 views, and we had it all to ourselves! Because of our late start, we did have to move pretty quickly to make it out before dark. We reached the parking lot right as the last few rays of sunlight were hitting Mt. Hood. A great day!