McCully Basin – 07/23/2024

For the third hike of our vacation we landed on McCully Basin. While it was supposed to be slightly cooler than it had been Sunday or Monday and also than what the forecast for Wednesday was it was still going to be in the mid-80’s. McCully Basin was another hike where Sullivan describes three options: a 9.2-mile hike to a creek crossing, an 11.6-mile hike to McCully Basin, and a 12.8-mile hike to a pass. While we’ve typically tried to do as much of Sullivan’s featured hikes as possible (post) the combination of the weather and my problematic left leg had us focused on just doing as much of the hikes as we felt comfortable with. For this hike Heather set a goal of the creek crossing, and I was hoping to make it to McCully Basin if my leg, which had been feeling progressively better, wasn’t bothering me.

We again arrived at the McCully Trailhead just before 6am to avoid hiking in the hottest part of the day.

We took a short trail which brought us to the service road for Mount Howard.

We turned right on this road and followed it uphill for a third of a mile to a sign for the McCully Creek Trail.
East Peak

Spreading dogbane

The start of the McCully Creek Trail (to the left).

The trail initially follows an old roadbed before becoming single track.

Shortly after becoming single track we came across a pair of spruce grouses.

The trail climbed gradually through a nice forest with lupine and other wildflowers arriving at the creek crossing 4.6-miles from the trailhead.

Paintbrush and pussytoes along with the lupine.

Pink pyrola

Monkshood

Tall bulebells

Penstemon

Entering the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

Yellow columbine

Arnica and fleabane

Coiled lousewort

The McCully Creek crossing.

Elephants head at the crossing.

I was feeling good so I forded the creek and continued on while Heather stopped at the creek for a break. There was a small meadow on the far side of the creek then the trail made its steepest climb yet before leveling out again and passing through several small meadows.

Paintbrush in the meadow.

Fleabane (or aster) in the meadow.

Wallowa paintbrush

Cusick’s speedwell

The first blowdown we encountered.

To reach the meadows in McCully Basin I needed to leave the trail and hike cross-country. Sullivan described leaving the trail just as it begins to steepen 0.6-miles from the creek crossing. It was easy enough to find where the trail steepened.

His description was to turn right and recross McCully Creek in 200′ then climb a 60′ sandy hillside and continue another 200′ to find the first of three main meadows.
Heading cross-country to McCully Creek.

Where I recrossed the creek.

I don’t think I angled right enough when I left the trail because I found myself on a steep hillside that would have been more than a 60′ climb. Checking my GPS I could see that I was near a ridge end, so I traversed up and round it using game trails. I then dropped down to what looked like a seldom used campsite near the edge of the first meadow.
Heading down to a flat opening which could serve as a campsite.

Arriving at the first meadow.

The meadow was very wet which made it tricky to get very far out. Once I had made it far enough to get a good view I declared victory and didn’t attempt to go further.
Aneroid Mountain

A few flowers in the meadow.

Bistort

Shooting stars

After taking in the meadow I headed back. I stayed lower around the ridge this time but then crossed the creek above where I’d crossed earlier and climbed steeply uphill on the far side to find the McCully Creek Trail above where it steepened.

Looking down toward where I left the trail to bushwack to the meadow.

I headed back to the creek crossing where Heather was waiting and then we hiked back to the car. We didn’t see any other hikers, but the butterflies were out in force.

Jacob’s ladder

Orange agoseris

Fritillary

Crescent

Bog orchid

Tortoiseshell

Red-breasted nuthatch

The gate on the service road had been opened at some point.

Swallowtail

My hike wound up being an even 11-miles with a little over 2000′ of elevation gain. It was a little shorter than Sullivan’s description, but he showed going 0.6-miles off-trail while I only proceeded 0.3-miles to reach the meadow. There did appear to be a path I could have followed had I wanted to walk through a lot of mud so maybe later in the year the meadow is more dried out and easier to pass through.

We drove back to Enterprise, cleaned up and changed, then had an early dinner at Heavenly’s. There was still a red flag warning for heat and afternoon thunderstorms forecast for Wednesday so we stuck with our plan to hike to Bonny Lakes the next day. Happy Trails!

Flickr: McCully Basin