Proposal 6: Scenic Byways

Issue: The Mount Hood Loop Highway once set the standard for how to design a scenic byway when it was completed in the 1920s. Unfortunately, much of the original route was destroyed as the original roads were widened and straightened in the 1950s.

Proposal: The proposal would extend the recent restoration of the Columbia River Scenic Highway portion of the Mount Hood loop to other sections of the highway, either through restoring remaining sections of original highway, or by adding historic design elements to newer alignments of Highways 35 and 26.  In tandem with this proposal, future expansion or “modernization” of these routes would be subject to national park guidelines for design and function.

In addition to these highway restoration projects, a new scenic byway would be assembled from existing roads along Surveyor’s Ridge, from Brooks Meadow to Highway 35 at Middle Valley.  This route would be patterned after the Blue Ridge Parkway, with periodic waysides and picnic areas that features views of Mount Hood and the Hood River Valley, and short trail spurs to other points of interest.

A second scenic byway would follow Lolo Pass road, from Zigzag to Dee. The long term vision for this route would be to add rustic features, reminiscent of the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway, and rehabilitate the heavily overdeveloped sections of the corridor, where intense logging and high tension transmission lines mar the landscape.