Winter Hiking in Oregon's Back Country

Oregon is a beautiful place to hike in the winter. Whether you want to hike in Oregon's North West Region, Southern, Central or Eastern Region there is a spot everyone. There are over 250 places with accessible trails in the winter to hike, bike, camp, snowshoe, ski, climb and so much more.

The waterfalls in this region in the winter are frozen in time and take on a look of amazing crystal formations. The leaves have left the trees and bushes to give way to spectacular views of the creeks below that bubble around the icy snow covered banks. So do not put your hiking boots away at the first sign of snow because winter hiking in Oregon, may leave you with slick trails, cold feet and numbing fingers, while at the same time rewarding the hiker with it's exceptional views or Oregon's beautiful wilderness.

A great winter hiking experience Oregon has to offer is at Mount Defiance Trail. The peak elevation is 4,960 ft with a vertical gain of 4,800 ft while hiking this trail. This trail is overlooking the Columbia River Gorge and it's height at the summit gives way to amazing views that extent from the snow covered peaks to the Hood River Valley and then your eyes rest at the bottom to the great river below as it expands for miles and miles.

The hike here starts a sea level with the hiking elevation gain at 4,800 ft, which is a grueling and strenuous hike. This beautiful, scenic trail goes for 11.9 miles and takes you to the near by city of Oak Grove, Oregon. Dog's are welcome on this trail and the duration usually takes anywhere from 8 to 12 hours to complete.

Or you could take one of the many surrounding trails such as, Starvation Creek Exploration trail, which has an elevation gain of 2,200 ft. and is a 9.2 total mile loop trail. This trail is open all year round with the exception of sever winter weather snow storms that may shut it down for a few days. The best time to take a hike on this trail is in April and usually takes anywhere form 30 minutes to 5 hours, depending on how much sight seeing you will be doing.

While winter hiking in this region, please take note that the weather in this part of the United States of America can change in an instant and one should always take serious precautions before planning a winter hike in this region.

Make sure you have left your itinerary with friends and family and stop by the local rangers station and inform them of your day trip as well, just in case something should arise there is backup already in place for your survival. Have your trip well planned out and do not go off the track you have chosen as this would be detrimental if something were to happen no one would know where you are, so always stick to what you have planned out.

For your gear in this region you need to be prepared for all kinds of weather changes. Layer your clothes, where a good insulated gortex winter jacket, good insulated winter boots, compass, GPS device, hiking poles, hat, gloves, back pack with plenty of food and water in it. Take into mind that this is the "Great Outdoors" Oregon's back country in winter, be cautious and aware at all times and enjoy your winter exertion on Oregon's back country trails.

References for this article came from, winterhiking.com and cooltrails.com