The Badger Creek Wilderness is a wilderness area located east of Mount Hood in the northwestern Cascades of Oregon, United States. It is one of six designated wilderness areas in the Mount Hood National Forest, the others being Mark O. Hatfield, Salmon-Huckleberry, Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, and Bull of the Woods.
Topography The elevation of Badger Creek Wilderness ranges from . Steep walled glacial valleys lead to the top of Lookout Mountain, at . Annual precipitation in the Wilderness ranges from on the western ridges to in the dry eastern lowlands.
Three creeks drain the Wilderness - Badger, Little Badger, and Tygh.Badger Creek Wilderness - Wilderness.net
Vegetation
Lookout Mountain and the high ridgeland extending east support a subalpine ecosystem, with hardy trees and rocky terrain. Penstemon, Indian paintbrush, yellow avalanche lilies, and stonecrop are common in the area. Farther east in the Wilderness the climate is warm and dry, where ponderosa pine forest and extensive growths of Oregon white oak and grasslands are common. Larkspur, shooting star, lupine, balsamroot, death camas, and purple onion can be found in the area.
Recreation Common recreational activities in Badger Creek Wilderness include hiking, camping, wildlife watching, cross-country skiing, and horseback riding. There are approximately of developed trails in the Wilderness. These trails lead to Lookout Mountain, Flag Point fire lookout, Badger Lake, and along Badger, Little Badger, and Tygh Creeks. There are several primitive campsites in the wilderness. the Bonney Butte area of the wilderness is in Mount Hood National Recreation Area.
Despite efforts by firefighters, the Flag Point fire lookout was destroyed in the 2026 Grasshopper Fire, which as of August 26, 2026, had burned over 93,000 acres—much of it within the Wilderness area.https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mthood/newsroom/releases/grasshopper-fire-consumes-flag-point-lookout Access to many roads, trails, and campgrounds in the Wilderness were closed by the US Forest Service due to the fire.https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mthood/alerts/closure-place-grasshopper-fire
See also List of Oregon Wildernesses List of U.S. Wilderness Areas Old growth List of old growth forests Wilderness Act
References
External links
Mt. Hood National Forest - Wilderness