Pioneer Woman's Grave

[Sugar Pine]

Hiked the Pioneer Woman's Grave trail from the Barlow Sno-Park.
Nice view of Mt Hood from the trail.

Near the grave, the Barlow Trail continues north and then crosses Highway 26. We continued to follow the old road north. At the Salmon River the only route we could find turns southwest, paralleling the river and then meeting up opposite FR 3531 across the highway. It seems unlikely that the Barlow Road would head back south and the "new road" seemed more recent with rocks piled on both sides of the path. We went back north to try and find where the Barlow Road crossed the Salmon River, but no luck.

Old Road heading back to Highway 26 opposite FR 3531

Sketch of Barlow Road and rock lined road

I wasn't able to find an old map with the rock-lined road on USGS TopoView. Does anyone have thoughts on what this road was or where I could look for more info?
Or, on where the Barlow Road crosses the Salmon River?
Thanks

[bobcat]

All the maps I've seen don't show that northern jink. Pretty much straight east west down from Barlow Pass to the grave site, across the East Fork, and then to Summit Meadows.

[stevenrbi]

My friend Robin and I have also searched for the Salmon river crossing and found a potential site. The GPS coordinates for that site are: 45.28510 -121.70831. If you cross the river there you can follow a faint roadbed to Hwy26. There is a Barlow Road sign on a tree at location 45.28431 -121.71022 that supports this route. The other thought is they crossed close to the junction of Hwy35 and Hwy26 and all traces have been lost. There is a known pioneer camp in the interchange area of Hwy 26 and Hwy35. At coordinates 45.28284 -121.71664. There are rock engravings at this site. This site is a protected area. From this area you can follow a road bed West until it intersects Hwy26. Across Hwy26 on top of the hill is another Barlow Wagon Road sign at location 45.28390 -121.721479. From this sign you can follow the roadbed into the trillium Lake parking lot.

[Sugar Pine]

Thank you both for the good information. The sign locations are interesting.
This is the route we took (Our GPS track and Salmon River don't line up accurately.) I added your GPS locations for the sign and river crossing:

From the Pioneer Woman's grave, we followed the Barlow Road northwest. At Highway 26 there was an Oregon Trail signpost.

Across 26 there was a "Route of the Barlow Road" sign. We followed this until it turned SW at the Salmon River where the road changed to the rock-lined road.

The signs suggest that the Barlow Road headed NW and then turned SW. Now I have to wait for the snow to melt to explore more.

Thanks!