5.5 miles of hiking • 1500' elevation gain • 1 night
Changed my Cooper Spur plan due to looming thunder clouds, then decided against Trillium Lake due to hiker traffic on the trail (not like Multnomah - more like Vancouver Fireworks kind of traffic...could be 1000+ people at the lake!) so Veda Lake was kind of last minute thought.
It turned out a nice overnight trip - the lake was pleasant, very quiet (only 2 groups except me), and the trail has nice Mt. Hood views. There's so many crawdads, when you look into the water you see about 10 in one spot. "Fished" crawdads in the evening and then again at night with headlamp, which was easier by far. Despite a silty/rocky mix at the bottom, the lake is quite deep and the swimming was great (wading into the water was not). I parked 1.5 miles before the trailhead due to rocky road so next day made a loop over the ridge of Veda Butte off trail. The view over Veda Lake to Mt. Hood is almost as good as one from Tom Dick & Harry Mtn!
