Six weeks ago we told you to skip Mt. Hood entirely. That was the right call at the time — Level 3 evacuations, hazardous air over Portland, a fire still gaining ground. Things look different now. The Forest Service reduced its Grasshopper Fire closure order on Sept. 2, and the trails that came back with it are the ones people actually asked about all summer: the Timberline Trail, Tamanawas Falls, Rock Creek. If your fall hiking plans have been on hold since August, this is the update you’ve been waiting for.

We’re not going to pretend the fire never happened, either. Some closures on the east flank run through the end of the year. But the headline is real: the marquee dog trail on this mountain is open again, right as fall color season gets going.

Mount Hood Status Check: What’s Open Right Now

Detail	What You Need to Know
Containment	97% as of Sept. 13-14, 2026, up from 20% a month earlier
Fire size	Roughly 94,000 acres, holding steady since mid-September
Fire activity	Minimal — crews report little residual heat after rain and cooler temps
Timberline Trail	Reopened Sept. 3-4, along with the Pacific Crest Trail
Tamanawas Falls Trail	Reopened Sept. 3-4
Rock Creek Campground & Day Use	Reopened Sept. 3-4
Still closed	East flank routes near Mt. Hood Meadows, plus scattered roads and trails through Dec. 31, 2026
Evacuations	Downgraded to Level 2 “Be Set” in Wasco County as of Sept. 15
Your dog, today	The 41-mile loop is back in play — check the current closure map before you commit to a section

Where the Fire Actually Stands Now

The Grasshopper Fire started July 23 from a lightning strike in Wasco County, and by mid-August it was still a moving target — 83,642 acres, containment stuck at 20%, Level 3 “Go Now” orders active in parts of Wasco and Hood River counties. That’s where our original coverage left off. It wasn’t a great place to leave a story, but it was an honest one.

The fire settled down after that, and not by a little. It’s now holding at roughly 94,000 acres with 97% containment as of Sept. 13-14, according to regional reporting on the fire’s status. Rain and cooler temperatures over the weekend of Sept. 12-13 knocked activity down to almost nothing — crews found little residual heat across most of the burn scar, and the work has shifted from fighting fire to repairing what fighting it left behind: roads, dozer lines, culverts, hazard trees. Wasco County lowered its evacuation zones to Level 2 “Be Set” on Sept. 15, a real step down from the Level 3 orders that had people packing cars a month prior.

Ninety-seven percent isn’t zero. Crews are still working the last few percent of the perimeter, and fire restrictions and the underlying forest closure order remain in effect. But this is a fire in mop-up mode, not a fire that’s still deciding how big it wants to get.

What Reopened on Mount Hood (And When)

The Forest Service didn’t wait for 100% containment to start giving trails back. On Sept. 2, it issued a reduced closure order, and by Sept. 3-4 — just ahead of Labor Day weekend — the following were open again:

• The Timberline Trail, the full 41-mile loop around the mountain
• Tamanawas Falls Trail, the popular out-and-back to the waterfall
• Rock Creek Campground and Day Use Area
• The Pacific Crest Trail through this stretch, plus Elk Meadows Trail north of Gnarl Ridge and Gnarl Ridge Trail itself

That’s a meaningful chunk of what makes this mountain worth driving to. At its widest point over the summer, the closure order covered 54 trails and two dozen-plus forest roads across the Barlow and Hood River Ranger Districts — the kind of blanket closure that takes the whole east side of Mt. Hood off the table at once. Getting the Timberline Trail and Tamanawas Falls back isn’t a token gesture. It’s most of what people come here for.

The Real Prep Work Isn’t the Closure Map — It’s Your Dog’s Conditioning

Here’s the thing about the Timberline Trail reopening: getting your dog onto it and getting your dog through it are two different problems, and the closure order only solves the first one. This is a 41-mile loop circling the entire mountain, with roughly 9,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain, multiple glacier-fed creek crossings, and stretches above treeline where the weather turns fast regardless of what the forecast said at the trailhead. Most people take three to five days to do the whole thing. A dog that’s spent the summer on flat neighborhood trails and city park loops is not ready for that just because the Forest Service lifted a closure order.

Dogs are allowed on leash or under close voice control, which makes this one of the better multi-day options in the region for a trail dog — you’re not stuck picking between your dog and the good loop, the way you would be in a national park a few hours south. If you’re planning a section that dips into the Mt. Hood Wilderness (most of the loop does), you’ll also need to grab the free self-issued wilderness permit at the trailhead. It’s not a quota system, just a way for the Forest Service to track use, but skipping it isn’t worth the risk of a ranger conversation five miles in.

Before you commit dates, work backward from the trail instead of forward from your calendar:

1. Build up total daily mileage over several weeks, not the weekend before. If your dog’s longest recent hike is 5 miles, jumping to 10-13 mile days on the loop is how you end up carrying a limping dog the last two miles to camp.
2. Test the pack loaded, not empty. A dog that’s never carried food, a bowl, and a sleeping layer for three straight days needs a few shakedown hikes with real weight before the Timberline Trail is the place to find out how that goes. Our multi-day backpacking guide covers load limits and fit.
3. Practice creek crossings somewhere lower-stakes first. The loop’s glacier-fed crossings run high and cold, especially early in the day before overnight melt slows. A dog who’s never crossed moving water on a leash is a bad combination with a crossing that’s swifter than it looks.
4. Acclimate to elevation if you’re not local. Parts of the loop sit above 7,000 feet. If your dog lives at sea level, don’t schedule big miles on day one — our altitude sickness guide covers what to watch for.
5. Expect the burn scar to slow you down near Gnarl Ridge and the Eliot Branch crossing, even on reopened sections — downed branches, ash, and altered footing near the closure boundary aren’t a reason to skip that stretch, but they are a reason to budget more time through it than your normal pace would suggest.

What’s Still Closed on Mount Hood?

The east flank isn’t fully back yet, and it won’t be for a while. Mt. Hood Meadows is still functioning as a fire camp for crews working the remaining containment lines — generators, staging tents, and heavy equipment parked where day hikers would otherwise be — and the area around it, along with scattered roads and trails elsewhere on the forest, stays closed under an order that runs through Dec. 31, 2026, or until the Forest Service rescinds it early. A fire camp doesn’t clear out the moment containment hits 97%; crews still need the space to finish repair work, and that’s a logistics timeline, not a fire-danger one.

Before you drive out, check the current version of the Forest Service’s closure order for your specific route. It’s revised as conditions change, and a route that’s open today isn’t guaranteed to stay that way if crews find new hazard trees or the fire flares back up during the warm, dry stretch forecast for later this week.

Mount Hood Has Done This Before

This isn’t the first time fire has closed a stretch of the Timberline Trail and then handed it back scarred. The 2011 Dollar Lake Fire burned roughly 6,300 acres on the mountain’s north side — a lightning strike below the Elk Cove trail that spread through Vista Ridge, Eden Park, Cairn Basin, and Wy’east Basin before fall rain stopped it. The Forest Service closed the loop between Gnarl Ridge and Ramona Falls that fall, and when it reopened the following season, the trail tread itself was mostly intact, but the standing dead timber along it stuck around for years. Hikers were still reporting hazard trees and blowdown across those burned sections a full decade later, according to trail reports collected by the WyEast Blog.

That’s the useful precedent here, not a comparison to some other fire in another state. “Reopened” on this mountain has historically meant the trail tread is walkable and the immediate danger has passed — not that every burned tree along the route has been cleared. The Grasshopper Fire’s burn scar near Gnarl Ridge is brand new by comparison, which means the hazard-tree window is just getting started, not winding down.

Is This Actually Safe to Plan Around?

Short answer: more than it’s been at any point since July, but bring the same checking habits you’d use for any post-fire trail. A fire holding at 97% containment with minimal activity and cooling weather is about as close to “done” as a wildfire status page gets without saying 100%. The remaining risk isn’t the fire reigniting into something dangerous — it’s localized hazards left behind: unstable burned trees near trail edges, washed-out sections after rain, and a closure boundary that can still shift if crews find something new during repair work.

Treat the closure order like a living document, not a one-time check. Pull it up again the morning you leave, not the week you booked the trip. And if smoke returns with any red-flag warning later this fall — dry lightning is still possible in the Cascades into October — don’t assume last week’s “reopened” status still applies.

So, Book the Trip or Not?

Book it — but spend more of your prep time on your dog’s legs than on refreshing the closure page. The Grasshopper Fire has gone from an actively growing, evacuation-triggering emergency in mid-August to a 97%-contained, mop-up-phase incident by mid-September, and the trails that matter most for a fall trip are open: the Timberline Trail, Tamanawas Falls, and Rock Creek Campground, all back since Sept. 3-4. The east flank near Mt. Hood Meadows stays closed while it doubles as a fire camp, and a burn scar with fresh hazard trees along a route that’s historically kept them around for years means this isn’t the year to skip conditioning your dog for the miles ahead. Get the permit, build the mileage, check the map the morning you leave — in that order.

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Containment, acreage, and weather details from Columbia Community Connection, current as of Sept. 13-14, 2026. Trail and campground reopening details from the U.S. Forest Service’s Grasshopper Fire closure order and Estacada News. Background on the fire’s origin and August status from our Aug. 13 coverage. Dollar Lake Fire history from the WyEast Blog’s 10-years-later retrospective. This is an active closure order that can change — confirm current conditions at InciWeb or the Forest Service closure page before any trip near Mt. Hood.