Burnt Lake trail to Cast Lake trail, via Burnt and Cast Lake and East ZigZag Peak.

A July hike into the Mount Hood Wilderness. The route starts at the Burnt Lake Trailhead and climbs up to Burnt Lake. The trail then climbs to East ZigZag Peak which has views of at least three volcanoes and offers a fantastic view of Mount Hood. The trail then drops down to Cast Lake, which has noticeably less hiker use than Burnt Lake. We then hiked down to Cast Lake trailhead, and only met two hikers along the way down. This trail is located north of Highway 26 at ZigZag, Oregon. The Burnt Lake trail is very popular and sees a lot of hiker traffic. Parking can be limited. The Cast Lake trail isn't as scenic as the Burnt Lake trail so the two make for a really nice horseshoe hike with a vehicle parked at each end. It would be possible to get by with one vehicle and hike the road back to the start.