The Grasshopper Fire has taken most of the Barlow Ranger District off the map. The Pacific Crest Trail is holding, for now.
The closure covers most of the Barlow Ranger District. The PCT section of the Timberline was still open as of publication. Outdoor Unc · schematic map, not for navigation
Fifty-four trails and twenty-four forest roads in Mount Hood National Forest closed on August 4 as the Grasshopper Fire pushed toward the mountain. The forest describes it as a good portion of the Barlow Ranger District. The order runs through December 31 unless it is rescinded or amended first.
The fire started on July 23 and has reached roughly 48,000 acres at 23 percent containment, close enough to the Mount Hood Highway to matter. Parts of the Timberline Trail are inside the closure.
The Pacific Crest Trail portion of the Timberline, which runs around the east side of the mountain, is still open. Forest staff attribute that partly to winds swinging back to the west, which is the kind of reprieve that can reverse inside a day.
Do not expect a clean reopening. The forest says it will shrink the closure area before lifting it entirely, and that developed sites, campgrounds and heavily used roads will stay shut until hazard trees and damaged infrastructure are dealt with. That process runs on a scale of seasons.
Daytime highs in the nineties with nights barely dropping to sixty have pushed western Montana rivers past the line. Hoot-owl restrictions now cover the Clark Fork in its entirety, the Bitterroot and East Fork Bitterroot, and the Blackfoot from Cedar Meadow down to the Clark Fork confluence.
There is a separate set of restrictions aimed specifically at bull trout, covering hundred-yard radiuses around the mouths of Rattlesnake Creek, Fish Creek and the St. Regis. Bull trout and westslope cutthroat stack up where cold tributaries enter the main river, which is exactly where an angler would look for them and exactly where they can least afford the handling.
Anglers looking to escape the restrictions are running out of nearby options. The Flathead to the north is not affected yet. To the southeast the whole Big Hole, the lower Beaverhead, the entire Jefferson, the lower Gallatin and most of the Madison are all restricted, with a 24-hour closure still on part of the Madison.
Water above 66 to 73 degrees stresses trout before you ever touch one; being hooked and played adds to a load the fish is already carrying. Some do not recover.