- Oregon County HP: #28
- Difficulty: ⭐️ (on a scale of 5)
- Summit Elevation: 3,594 feet
- Mountain Range: Oregon Coast Range
- Ancestral Lands: Yamhill, Kalapuya, Luckiayute, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde; Confederated Tribes of the Siletz; Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla
PLANNING DETAILS
Location: Laurel Mountain is located in the eastern portion of the Oregon Coast Range, approximately 25 miles west of Salem. The closest small town with services is Dallas, Oregon.
When to Visit: Spring or late autumn. The logging roads on the north side of Laurel Mountain are closed from mid-May to October during wildfire season. There is an alternate route on the south side of Laurel Mountain that is generally accessible year-round. However, visitors must purchase a $100 non-motorized recreation permit from Weyerhaeuser and make the 19.2-mile (round-trip) journey to the summit by foot or bicycle.
Fees/Permits Required: This high point sits amid a patchwork of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and private logging land controlled by Weyerhaeuser. Recreation permits are not required to visit Laurel Mountain using the northern route. However, because the summit contains an FAA radar tower, visitors will need advance permission from the FAA’s NW Oregon Service Support Center Manager. The office number is (503) 258-6965. Visitors may not take photos of the FAA radar site.
Getting There: Laurel Mountain is most easily accessed from the north via Oregon Highway 22 (OR-22) and Mill Creek Road.
Directions from Salem:
- Follow OR-22 west for 21 miles toward the community of Buell, Oregon.
- Turn left onto Mill Creek Road, immediately after OR-22 crosses the bridge over Mill Creek.
- Drive south on Mill Creek Road for 3 miles to Mill Creek Recreation Site. The pavement ends approximately 0.5 miles before the park, and transitions to a well-graded dirt logging road.
- Just beyond Mill Creek Recreation Site, there is a white Weyerhaeuser Gate spanning Mill Creek Road. This gate is closed and locked during wildfire season, which typically runs from mid-May through October. If the gate is unlocked and open, visitors may drive the remainder of the way to the summit. The route is 21.3 miles each way.
Northern Driving Route
- If you arrive outside of fire season, the Weyerhaeuser gate across Mill Creek Road should be open.
- Follow Mill Creek Road southeast for 8.6 miles until you reach a 3-way junction with Shumway Road. There are yellow mile markers posted every 1/2 mile on Mill Creek Road after the Weyerhaeuser gate.
- At the junction, make a left onto Shumway Creek Road and follow it south for 5 miles toward Boulder Pass. Approximately 2 miles up this road, Shumway splits, and one of the roads makes a tight hairpin turn to the right. Keep right and follow the hairpin turn around.
- Once you reach the big junction of logging roads at Boulder Pass, turn left onto Black Rock Road and follow it south for 5.2 miles. Shortly after your turn onto Black Rock Road, you will see mile marker 14. From here, the mile marker numbers descend as you travel south rather than increasing as they did on Mill Creek Road and Shumway Creek Road.
- When you reach the Laurel Mountain access road, turn left and drive 2.1 miles to the summit. The access road is a well-graded, wide road marked with tall, slim posts with an orange circle marker at their top.
NOTE: The northern route to Laurel Mountain takes visitors through a network of dirt logging roads that crisscross each other. Visitors should come prepared with a GPS route or other means to avoid taking a wrong turn.
Parking: There is no designated parking for this high point. However, there is room for at least 15 vehicles to park near the fenced FAA radar site at the summit. The closest amenities (bathrooms, water, trash) are in the towns of Dallas and Grande Ronde, Oregon, about 15 miles from Mill Creek Recreation Area.
Pets Allowed: There are no signs prohibiting animals.
Kid Friendly: Yes. The northern route allows visitors to drive to the summit if all gates are open.
Hiking Distance: n/a
The Summit: Laurel Mountain’s summit has a short FAA radar tower atop it, with a perimeter fence surrounding the tower. The top of the radar tower looks like a giant white golf ball. This is a radome, a weather-protective shell that houses radar equipment, such as the FAA’s air traffic control systems.
There is also a small, but prominent pile of rock outside the northeast corner of the fence that appears to be the highest natural point on the summit. There is no summit register or survey marker.
TRIP SUMMARY
Date Visited: November 12, 2025
Route Used: Mill Creek Road’s northern route – 42.6-mile drive (round-trip) from Mill Creek Park
When it comes to county highpointing in Oregon, my least favorite region is the Oregon Coast Range. It’s not just that these peaks are lower in elevation, or that there are rarely any views amid the surrounding forest.
The real reason I’ve come to dread these county high points is because of the timber industry. Oregon is a heavily forested state. And while logging is no longer the sole driver of our economy, it is still very much a reality. Much of the area between the Willamette Valley and the Oregon Coast is public land that is ripe for timber harvesting.
As a result, the timber companies in the state have become literal and figurative “gatekeepers” to the public lands where the state’s western county high points are located. These companies block visitor access by installing locked gates across forest roads. And they issue costly ($100-$500) recreation permits that further limit the public’s access to the land.
This is why I’ve put off visiting Laurel Mountain for three years in a row.
Fast forward to November 2025, when I could no longer procrastinate if I wanted to keep some momentum on my highpointing journey. I had fewer than 9 summits left, and I needed to knock the remaining Oregon Coast Range peaks out ASAP.
Peakbagger.com clued me into the logisitical challenges that lay ahead for Laurel Mountain.
- First, I’d need to contact the FAA to get permission to visit the summit, since there is an FAA radar tower at the top of Laurel Mountain with a gate (that might be locked) about half-mile below it.
- Second, I’d need to navigate Weyerhaeuser’s recreation permit process for the “privilege” of accessing the logging roads leading to and from the summit.
Getting permission from the FAA was ridiculously easy. I just emailed the current FAA NW Oregon Service Support Center Manager (Cam Bembenek) at the email address listed in other highpointers’ Peakbagger trip reports.
Within a day, Cam sent me permission to visit the summit, but he reiterated that I wasn’t allowed to enter the fenced area around the radar tower or take photos of the site. Fair enough. I fully respect the FAA’s national security requirements. I fly the friendly skies on a regular basis. I have zero interest in messing with air safety.
The second challenge was the bigger problem. Most highpointers seemed to approach Laurel Mountain from the southeast, near Falls City, Oregon. Unfortunately, this southern route goes smack dab through the middle of one of Weyerhaueser’s Black Rock logging sites.
Using this southern approach meant I’d have to purchase a $100 non-motorized recreation permit from Weyerhaeuser. Then I’d need to hike or bicycle the 19.3-mile round-trip journey from the locked gate to the summit and back. All while avoiding logging trucks and heavy equipment on Black Rock Road. This was the pain point I’d been trying to avoid.
But then, serendipity intervened. Another highpointer posted a trip report about a northern route that avoided the Black Rock permit requirements.
I tried my best not to get excited too soon about this northern alternative. If this route required off-roading on remote, muddy roads, it wasn’t going to work. I don’t have a 4×4 truck or Jeep.
I was also skeptical about the permit information. I’d have to go onto the Weyerhaeuser website and see if this new info was legit. I wasn’t willing to attempt the route merely on the advice of a stranger on the internet. I still needed to do my due diligence.
After a little poking around on Gaia GPS and the Weyerhauser recreation maps, it seemed that the northern route was possible. Could I really be that simple? Could I avoid a 19-mile hike (or bike ride) and drive all the way to the summit without paying a dime??
I decided to give it a whirl and set out on a Wednesday afternoon. I drove up to Salem first, then headed west on OR-22 to see if this northern route was open.
As I neared the community of Buell (population: 800) and passed over Mill Creek, I took a left turn off the highway onto Mill Creek Road. About 2.5 miles into my journey south, the asphalt-paved road transitioned to a well-maintained dirt logging road where a small BLM picnic area sat alongside the Mill Creek.
The entire park was covered with orange autumn leaves. It seemed as if I was the only soul out here. There weren’t any logging trucks rumbling down the road. There weren’t even any hunters or fishermen out, or any parked pickup trucks.
I continued a little farther down Mill Creek Road, where I encountered a wide-open gate and a wooden kiosk with a list of rules from Weyerhauser.
As I read through the rules, the top one read “Open for Motorized Travel Outside of Fire Season.” It was now mid-November. Fire season was officially over, and the autumn rains were in full swing. It really did seem as if I could drive down this road with no further coordination.
A second, newer Weyerhaeuser sign was posted on a tree near the kiosk. This one read, “Private Property Authorized Vehicles Only.” Well, it’s a good thing I printed my FAA email authorizing me to visit Laurel Mountain. Time to get this party started.
As I began my drive west along Mill Creek Road, I was still a bit nervous. The road was wide, but it was still a single-lane logging road. If a truck loaded down with logs came barreling down toward me, I’d have to think quickly to get out of its way.
After about a mile, I noticed yellow mile markers along the roadway, marking the route every half mile or so. But still no sign of logging trucks. So I kept my speed slow and continued driving.
Was it foolish to attempt this drive on a weekday? Was peril waiting for me around the next bend? I kept my window cracked to better hear oncoming logging trucks, but none appeared. Not on the roadway. Nor did I hear them as I crossed over several narrow bridges as the road crossed over Mill Creek and then back again.
Shortly after mile marker 8.5, I found myself in a minor pickle. I came to a T-junction with another road near Shumway Creek. I didn’t pay too much attention to my options, because Mill Creek Road seemed to curve around to my right. I kept driving around the curve and was beginning to wonder if this was a mistake, until I saw mile marker 9.
This sign normally would have assuaged my doubts, but I now had a new problem. The road forked here, and mile marker 9 was posted right between the two roads. I couldn’t tell which option was correct.
The road on the left side of fork went uphill and was heading west in the general direction I needed to go. However, the road to the right was much broader and more defined, suggesting it saw more regular use.
I initially took the right-hand road, assuming the logging truck traffic would likely take the widest route. But as I got about a half mile down that road, it began to narrow. What’s more, this road was turning north instead of south. This couldn’t be the correct way. So I found a good place to turn around and doubled back to the fork in the road near mile marker 9.
Once I returned to the junction, I then followed the other road that led uphill. But this also seemed to be incorrect. I was filled with doubt as soon as I passed through an open gate near a sign reading SH200. I checked my map. It appeared this road continued in the direction I wanted, but it would dead-end before I got to Boulder Pass.
After determining neither option was correct, I doubled back a second time. I needed to backtrack all the way to the junction near Shumway Creel at mile 8.5 and find another way up.
My goal was to get to Boulder Pass, and one of these logging roads had to work. So I began driving south on a new logging road marked as “Shumway.”
I had no clue whether this was the shortest way or even the correct one. But Shumway Creek Road seemed to go through to Boulder Pass, and there were mile markers on this road, too. I had nothing to lose by exploring, so I kept driving.
After two miles, Shumway took a sharp hairpin turn around to the right and began to head west. My map showed this was correct, so I blindly followed the turn around in hopes there wasn’t a truck coming toward me a top speed.
In reality, I still hadn’t seen any logging trucks out here. It was totally quiet. But the evidence of recent logging activity was all around me as I continued to gain elevation. There wasn’t a tree in sight on the slopes above me on the drive toward Boulder Pass.
Another 3.3 miles later, I reached Boulder Pass, which was essentially a wide junction where at least six major and minor logging roads converged. A yellow excavator sat in the middle of the junction, like a statue in the center of a city roundabout. But there were still no people around.
I turned left onto Black Rock Road and headed south. Soon thereafter, mile marker 14 appeared, and, in an unexpected twist, the mile markers began to decrease. A few miles down, I passed another unexpected sight. A waterfall was pouring over an 8-foot rock ledge directly beside the road.
After 5.2 miles on Blackrock Road, I reach my final turn for Laurel Mountain. Tall slender poles with small orange circles atop them marked the road. They looked like snowplow markers along a highway, not logging road markers.
I was now almost to the end of my journey. I was two miles from the summit, and I still hadn’t seen a single logging truck! This was wild. After all my gnashing of teeth for and putting this high point on the back burner, it was turning into a ridiculously easy journey.
Who knew all I had to do was wait until the end of fire season?
As I continued driving up the road toward the summit, the weather seemed to turn. A thick band of clouds and fog began to descend. I could still see the road clearly, but the further I drove uphill, the denser it got.
This moist weather shouldn’t have surprised me, though. In 1996, Laurel Mountain set an all-time annual rainfall record for the state with 204 inches, and the following year it was crowned the wettest place in the state. This modest 3,952-foot mountain is also the fourth-highest peak in the Oregon Coast Range (after Marys Peak, Rogers Peak, and Grass Mountain).
About a half mile below the summit, I passed my final gauntlet of the drive: the yellow gate near the top of Laurel Mountain. But even this gate was open today. I literally wouldn’t need to hike a single step on this adventure. I was able to drive the entire way up! The ease of this high point was blowing my mind.
As I rounded the final bend on the road, I could barely make out the white FAA golf ball (radome) atop a short metal tower. I would never know whether Laurel Mountain has stunning summit views, since visibility was only about 50 feet today. The white fog was so dense and murky that I could have been in San Francisco.
(Photo Credit: Senior Airman Tori Schultz, USAF)
I parked atop the broad, flat summit outside the FAA radar site. Then, I made my way over to the fenced boundary to take a carefully angled selfie to celebrate making it to the highest point in Polk County.
I parked atop the broad, flat summit outside the FAA radar site. Then, I made my way over to the fenced boundary to take a carefully angled selfie to celebrate making it to the highest point in Polk County.
The journey was slow, but far less painful than I’d been expecting. I didn’t have to pay an exorbitant recreation fee. I didn’t have to hike 20 miles. I didn’t have to dodge any logging trucks. This was about as easy a county high point as Tower Mountain (Oregon’s other fully drivable CoHP).
Outside the northeast corner of the fence, I noticed a small but prominent pile of rocks that appeared higher than anything else on the summit. Did prior highpointing visitors build it? I looked around the rocks for a summit register secreted away somewhere. But, no luck. It was just a rock pile.
My drive back down to Boulder Pass and Mill Creek Road at the end of this journey was slightly more eventful than the journey up.
I passed one guy operating a roller, slowly compacting a gravel patch on the Laurel Mountain access road. And I had to pull over on Black Rock Road to let a semi-truck pass with a piece of heavy equipment mounted on its trailer. But I never did see a single logging truck!
So in the words of William Shakespeare, “All’s well that ends well.”
BONUS MATERIAL
Alternate Routes
Southern Route. Visitors can also use Black Rock Road to approach Laurel Mountain from the southeast, from Falls City, Oregon. This route follows Black Rock Road west through Weyerhaeuser’s “Black Rock” logging area. All motorized and non-motorized travel through this area requires a valid recreation permit available HERE. The route has a locked gate across Black Rock Road, approximately 9.6 miles below the summit, and visitors are encouraged to limit their trips to weekends when vehicles and heavy equipment are not using the road.
Public Camping Nearby:
- Champoeg State Park Campground is located approximately 25 miles north of Salem. This large developed campground is open year-round and offers 21 full-hookup campsites, 54 campsites with water, 6 tent sites with parking nearby, 6 cabins, 6 seasonal yurts, a hiker-biker camping area, bathrooms with flush toilets and showers, picnic tables, fire rings, a disc golf course, fishing, trails, and a visitor center with historical exhibits. Reservations are available online. Cost: $22 for tent sites, $33-35 for RV sites, $54 for cabins, $64 for yurts.
Resources:
- Highpointing Laurel Mountain (Peakbagger)
- Weyerhaeuser Recreation Permits
- Polk County, Oregon (official site)
