Lolo Pass (Oregon)

Infobox Mountain Pass
Name = Lolo Pass
Photo = Lolo pass medium with mount hood background P3125.jpeg
Caption = Mount Hood visible behind Lolo Pass
Elevation = convert|3415|ft|m cite web
url = gnis3|1145348
title = Feature Detail Report Lolo Pass
work = GNIS
publisher = USGS
accessdate = 2008-08-07 ]
Location= 10 km NW of Mount Hood, Oregon, U.S.
Range = Cascades
Coordinates = coord|45.4267847|-121.7959109|type:pass_region:US-OR_scale:150000_elevation:1041|display=title,inline|name=Lolo Pass
Topographic

Traversed by = Lolo Pass Road

Lolo Pass is a mountain pass six miles northwest of Mount Hood and ten miles northeast of Zigzag, Oregon, on the Clackamas/Hood River county line. It divides the Sandy River watershed on the southwest from the Hood River watershed on the northeast.

At convert|3415|ft|m, it provides a much lower crossing of the Cascade Range near Mount Hood than the convert|4650|ft|m|adj=on Oregon Route 35 Bennett Pass on the southeast side. Access from the southwest side of the pass is paved all the way to the pass, where the road changes to gravel, heading down the northeast side of the pass.

The road through the pass was initially established by Native Americans, as a trading route connecting the Willamette Valley and sites at the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge like Celilo Falls. In 1838, Daniel Lee (nephew of missionary Jason Lee) drove livestock across the pass, while traveling east to establish a new Methodist mission at Wascopam.cite book
title=Salmon and Steelhead Runs and Related Events on the Sandy River Basin
first=Barbara
last=Taylor
date=1998
publisher=Portland General Electric
url=http://www.portlandgeneral.com/community_and_env/hydropower_and_fish/sandy/history/] He was the first westerner known to have used the trail. The trail was then used as one of the final legs of the Oregon Trail; settlers arriving from The Dalles would often drive their livestock over the pass while their families floated down the river. The 1846 construction of the Barlow Road provided a less daunting alternate route around the south side of Mount Hood. cite web
url = http://www.endoftheoregontrail.org/road2oregon/sa21barlowrd.html
title = The Barlow Road, The Final Leg of the Trail
publisher = End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
accessdate = 2007-02-01]

Lolo Pass is one of the milestones along the Pacific Crest Trail, though not a particularly low point for the region. By five miles south of Lolo Pass, the Pacific Crest Trail has dropped to 2800 feet (850 m) and, of course, much lower to the north at the Columbia River. A small campsite is located along the trail just south of the forest service road.

References