Iron Mountain is a Must Do Hike for Many

We first heard about Iron Mountain 5 years ago when a friend told us about this amazing hike in the Central Cascades off Hwy 20 near Tombstone Summit. When we took the hike, it was past the peak time for the annual wildflowers, but this year the flowers were blooming and the views were stunning.

If you have never hiked Iron Mountain before and are up for several miles, we suggest you park at the Tombstone Summit parking lot, walk 15 minutes through the beautiful nature trail which begins at the end of the lot (bear left down the trail off the gravel road), and then carefully cross the highway to the start of the Cone Peak Trail.  This trail takes you gradually up in elevation through old growth forest until the trail opens into stunning fields of wildflowers.  Continue along the trail, back and forth into the forest and out until you come to the branch to climb to the top of Iron Mountain. This steep trail is well traveled and eventually brings you to the top where a fire lookout used to be, but now is set up as a sitting area with Cascade mountain locates. After enjoying the view, climb down and continue the loop back through old growth forest to the official Iron Mountain parking lot (careful crossing the highway again). Once we crossed the highway, there was an easily missed path that takes you shortly to a sign going right to the Iron Mountain parking lot or left to the Old Santiam Wagon Road.  We walked .3 miles on the Old Santiam Wagon Road (again bear left) to the Tombstone Summit parking lot to get back to our car, climbing steeply at the end. The entire hike was 6.9 miles with roughly 1900 foot elevation gain. This was a wonderful hike at a great time of year.