Afternoon Hike Up to Illumination Rock

A bit over a month ago, I had just driven 3000 miles across the country to clear out my apartment in Seattle to move into my car. Before I even got to my apartment, however, I decided to camp for a couple weeks with my friends visiting Mount Hood from the east coast; a mere three and a half hours short of my final destination.

Fast forward to now, I have since moved out and have found myself back in the same exact place. The only difference is that I have upgraded to a 94 van, my friends are gone, and my ribs are broken.

A few days ago, for the solstice, hundreds of people hiked up to “illumination rock”, an outcrop on the way to the summit of Mount Hood. I really wanted to go, but I decided to make the responsible decision and continue to let my ribs heal. It did make me feel very nostalgic about a certain afternoon in May, however, when me and my east coast friends spontaneously decided to hike up to the rock at the end of mountain operations.

We were supposed to have gone the day before, but due to circumstances that I can’t for the life of me remember, we put it off. We had agreed to go the next day instead, but when morning came around clouds loomed over the volcano and we said “nah”. We all kind of separated throughout the day, and I was under the assumption that the hike was 86’d for the day due to the weather.

As the day went on, the sky cleared. It ended up being a beautiful, sunny day. I was waiting in line for the last lap up the upper lift before it closed for the day, when I was spotted by my friends.

We get on the lift and Sam says to me “you coming to Illumination?”. I was surprised, but excited. It was an incredible coincidence that we all just found each other in the last 5 minutes of the day.

So we set up the mountain from the top of the lift. Having not planned for this, I had no water and nothing but a singular PBR in my pocket. I had never been up to the rock, and was nervous about my worn-soled snowboard boots being able to hold footing on the exposed snowfield.

It was a little nerve-racking but so so worth it. The views were incredible and the ride down the natural snowfield, and the subsequent long ride down to the parking lot, were immensely satisfying. Having been bumming about missing the recent hike, I remembered this fondly and wanted to share some photos from a truly beautiful place.