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Originally Posted by analog
I'm fairly certain that "in the Mt. Hood National Forest" means in the Mt. Hood National Forest. If it was in the campground area, that would certainly have been mentioned, and they don't refer to the park areas as the forest. The state park is called the state park, and when you're out in the forest, it's referred to as the forest you're in, not the park that leads to it. That's been my experience in every state park i've been to, probably a dozen or so in 3 states.
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Being that you're not from the Western United States, I am going to assume you don't see a lot of national forests (given that Florida has 1 to our 14) and don't know how they're managed or what they can feature. They are managed by the USDA Forest Service. Most national forests are serviced by lots of forest roads, all numbered. Some forests are serviced by larger roads, including highways. The Mount Hood National Forest has a national highway and several state highways running through it, and is bounded on its northernmost side by I-84.
Within the Mount Hood National Forest there are lots of state parks, county parks, and developed campgrounds, as well as lots of hiking trails. There are certainly areas of the Mount Hood National Forest that could be as developed as some of our state parks but still referred to as the national forest. They do have several Forest Service managed developed campsites that would compare to a state park's facilities.
This is what puzzles me about the entire thing--even in the local news they have not mentioned specifically where in the forest the gentleman was at the time of the accident--what campground, what ranger area, off of what trail. In contrast to the developed areas, there are five areas of wilderness within the Mount Hood National Forest. If he had been in one of those areas, wouldn't they have mentioned that detail? Personally I was always taught in journalism that that was a very basic question to answer, and I think giving the answer "Mount Hood National Forest" is a very very bad one. It's a cop-out. I want to know more, especially as someone familiar with that area.