Category: McKenzie River

McKenzie River Trail (Blue Pool TH south to NF-610) – 11/21/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date November 22, 2020
3 Comments on McKenzie River Trail (Blue Pool TH south to NF-610) – 11/21/2020

A combination of a day off, a favorable forecast and a need to drive to Bend to pick up some Christmas items provided the perfect excuse to check out a section of the McKenzie River National Recreation Trail. This would be our third hike on this 26.4 mile long trail, all on different sections (Tamolitch Pool and Clear Lake).

We started our hike at the popular Tamolitch Blue Pool Trailhead where we had also started our hike to the Blue Pool.

This time though we headed south (left) on the McKenzie River Trail away from the Blue Pool and the crowds that would surely be arriving later in the day (we were the 2nd car at the TH on this morning).

The Sun wasn’t quite up yet, and it was still under 30 degrees, as we set off on the trail.

The trail climbed a forested hillside and crossed a forest road above Trail Bridge Reservoir (2 miles from the TH).

Forest road crossing.

The trail then descended to Forest Road 730 and a crossing of Smith River which feeds into the reservoir.

Another brief climb followed before dropping down to the Trail Bridge Dam.

The top of Three Fingered Jack is visible in the distance.

We continued on the trail which now began to follow the McKenzie River more closely.

Fall means mushrooms.

There were a couple of opportunities to get down to the river bank which we took advantage of and just over a mile and a half from the dam we stopped to admire Olallie Creek joining the river.

Anderson Creek joining the McKenzie.

Olallie Creek across from the trail.

A half mile beyond Olallie Creek the river split leaving a large forested island briefly in its center.

Beyond the island the trail passed some rocky cliffs where icicles dripped before dropping to a crossing of Deer Creek at the 5.5 mile mark of our hike.

Turning up Deer Creek to reach the footbridge.

Shortly after crossing the creek the trail arrived at Deer Creek Road (NF 782) where there is parking for the trail and Deer Creek (aka Bigelow) Hot Springs. We knew the hot springs were somewhere along our route but we didn’t know for sure where until we got home after the hike. There was no sign for the small hot spring that sits along the river bank but we did see an obvious trail heading south down to the river here. Not knowing that the hot springs were down there we visited the bridge over the McKenzie and then continued on the McKenzie River Trail.
Up river from Deer Creek Road.

Deer Creek Hot Springs would be somewhere along the right hand side of the river.

The trail briefly climbed above the river before switchbacking down and arriving at Frissel Creek just over a mile from Deer Creek Road.

We had to go around this bridge due to frost and it being at an angle.

Footbridge over Frissel Creek.

We had planned to turn around between 10 and 10:30 at either the hot springs or Forest Road 610 which the trail briefly follows. Since we didn’t realize we’d passed the hot springs we wound up making FR 610 the turnaround which was approximately three quarters of a mile beyond Frissel Creek. We arrived at the road just after 10:30.
Sun over the McKenzie River

FR 610

We turned around at the road and headed back keeping our eyes open for any sign of the hot springs and any other things we missed on the first pass. We still didn’t realize that the hot springs were where they were but we did spot a lot more mushrooms and the tops of the Middle and North Sister on the way back.

We missed this sign for slough creek the first time by.

Missed this survey marker too.

We also completely missed this sign at Deer Creek.

Still cold

Without the use of the zoom on the camera they are hard to make out but the tops of the North and Middle Sister are visible over the hills.

The Garmin showed 14.6 miles for this out and back (Google maps had indicated it would be 13.4 miles) and there was between 800 and 1000′ of cumulative elevation gain. What climbs there were weren’t ever steep and didn’t last long. We encountered a half dozen other trail users but when we arrived back at the trailhead it was full and cars were stretched all they way down the road with people heading for the Blue Pool. It has become one of “those” hikes and is getting loved to death. After changing we drove to Bend for a quick visit with Heather’s parents and then headed back over the pass to Salem. Happy Trails!

Flickr: McKenzie River Trail

Tags Bigelow Hot Springs, Blue Pool, Deer Creek, Deer Creek Hot Springs, Frissel Creek, hiking, McKenzie River, McKenzie River National Recreation Trail, McKenzie River Trail, mushroom, Olallie Creek, Oregon, Smith River, Tamolitch Pool, Trail Bridge Reservior

Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Hackleman Grove, Echo Basin and Fish Lake – 6/19/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 25, 2020
1 Comment on Hackleman Grove, Echo Basin and Fish Lake – 6/19/2020

Our vacation week had a theme going, multiple stop days, and we continued that on Friday with a three stop day to check off another of Sullivan’s featured hikes – Echo Basin. Actually the hike was no longer one of Sullivan’s 100 featured hikes in the most recent edition of his Central Oregon Cascades guidebook, but it was a featured hike in the 4th edition which is the one that we are using in our attempt to hike all of his featured hikes (post).

We began our day by stopping at the Hackleman Old Growth Grove Trail for a short 1 mile loop. The convenient trailhead is right off of Highway 20 near milepost 67. There is also a loop option that is marked as wheelchair friendly although on our visit there were a number of downed trees that said otherwise.

The wide trail led into the forest and quickly split.

We stayed right here and soon encountered our first downed trees.

The trail descended a bit toward Hackleman Creek to a junction where two trails joined from the left. The first was the wheelchair accessible continuation and the second was not.

The wheelchair friendly path.

The hiker path.

It was at this point that we realized that we probably shouldn’t have stayed right at the first junction. As we turned onto the hiker path we began seeing numbered posts for an interpretive trail. (There were no brochures or anything to tell us what the numbers represented.)
The hiker trail.

A short side path took us to the bank of Hackleman Creek.

20200619_071852 Western meadowrue

Mushrooms on a log.

We met back up with the middle trail at another signpost and could see more numbered posts down that trail which reinforced the idea that we should have taken the middle trail and returned on the hiker trail (based on the numbers of the posts we passed).

In any event it was a nice little hike and a good leg stretcher/warm up for our next stop at Echo Basin.

The Echo Basin Trailhead was 2 miles up Forest Road 055 which was just .3 miles east of the Hackleman Grove Trailhead. There was a fairly deep channel in the road a tenth of a mile or so from the actual trailhead that could prove difficult for lower clearance vehicles (we saw one car parked at a pullout just before it on our drive out).
Echo Basin Trail at FR 055.

This hike is a lollipop climbing an old logging road for a half mile then starting the loop at the .7 mile mark at a foot bridge over Echo Creek.
Rocky start to the trail.

Trillium

Just before the start of the loop we arrived at a green meadow that wasn’t very far along with most of the plants still early in their growth cycle.

We worried that we had come too early for the wildflowers higher in the basin.
More trillium along the meadow.

Swallowtail on salmonberry blossoms.

Start of the loop.

We crossed the creek and spotted a rabbit hiding in the brush.

The trail climbed and entered the start of the meadow that fills Echo Basin.

Orange tip butterfly

We were starting to see a few more flowers as we began to get into the meadow.
Bleeding heart

Violets

Fairybells

20200619_082454 Royal Jacob’s ladder

Western meadowrue

The further into the meadow that we got the wetter the ground became. Near the first of a series of short boardwalks there was a great display of shooting stars and buttercups.

There were also a number of elephants head beginning to bloom.

The boardwalks helped a bit but in between the gaps the ground was muddy and wet. A perfect mixture for frogs.

Paintbrush

20200619_084050 Frog

Looking back at the route through the meadow.

We left the meadow and dropped down to the footbridge to complete the loop then returned to the car. We passed a few hikers on their way up to the basin and these would be the only people we would encounter all day.

From the Echo Basin Trailhead we returned to Highway 20 and continued east 2.2 miles to Hackleman Creek Road (FR 2672) on the right for our third stop of the day along the Old Santiam Wagon Road. The wagon road crosses FR 2672 about a hundred feet from the highway and there is an unmarked trailhead down a short dirt road on the left.
The trailhead off of FR 2672.

There was an amazing patch of coral root at the trailhead.
20200619_094029

We walked past a green gate and found a post indicating that this was the Old Santiam Wagon Road.

This was a deviation for Sullivan’s hike description as he would have you start at the Fish Lake Day Use Area but the entrance to the day use area remains gated due to COVID-19. From this trailhead we could follow the wagon road 2.2 miles to the Pioneer Grave and Fish Lake. There wasn’t a lot to see along the way, a few scattered flowers was about it. The road was in fairly good shape with a few downed trees near the beginning but as we got closer to Fish Lake it was obvious that there had been some clearing done.
Iris

Beargrass

Santiam Wagon Road

Bunchberry

Musk monkeyflower

We stopped at the grave site where there is a semi-obstructed view of the Three Sisters.

Just beyond the grave site is the Fish Lake Remount Station which served as the headquarters of the Santiam National Forest in the 1910’s. Two cabins are available for reservations in Winter. We were not entirely sure of the status of the area as I mentioned before the Forest Service website mentioned that the Day Use are gate was still closed, but the Day Use Area was .4 miles from the grave site and there were no signs indicating that the remount station was off-limits. We followed the wagon road through the station but avoided using or touching any facilities.
Hall House

Commissary Cabin

Commissary Cabin innkeeper?

East Fork and Saddle Trails – 6/6/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 7, 2020
1 Comment on East Fork and Saddle Trails – 6/6/2020

There haven’t been many times in our 10 years of hiking that we haven’t been able to do the hike (or at least the vast majority of it) that we set out to do that day. Many of the failed attempts came early in our hiking years when we didn’t do as much research on current conditions as we do now, but even with the extra research sometimes things just don’t work out. Our attempt to hike the nearly 6 mile long East Fork Trail in the Willamette National Forest happened to be one of these times.

We had switched to this hike earlier in the week due to a rainy weekend forecast. Our plan was for an out-and-back hike starting at the East Fork Lower Trailhead and turning around at the East Fork Upper Trailhead.

The large parking area (with restrooms) for the lower trailhead is located at the NE end of Cougar Reservoir where the East Fork South Fork McKenzie River flows into it.

We set off on the East Fork Trail without looking closely at the signboard where it was clearly posted that the first of two footbridge leading across the river was out.

This bridge was only three tenths of a mile from the trailhead so it didn’t take long for us to discover it missing.

Fording the river was an option, it looked like it would have been an easier ford than the Indian Creek ford we had done on our first day backpacking the Middle Fork Willamette River (post). With that being said neither of us were keen on soaking our feet this early in the hike and knowing that the plan had been to go to the upper trailhead and back we simply decided to go back to the car, drive up to the upper trailhead, and hike down from there to the other side of the river and back which would allow us to cover the whole trail sans the missing bridge.

We were familiar with the upper trailhead having parked there in 2018 when we hiked to Horsepasture Mountain using the Saddle Trail (post). While the Saddle Trail headed uphill on the north side of FR 1993 near a small pullout, the East Fork Trail headed downhill on the south side.

Anemones and bunch berries were blooming near the trailhead.

This time we noticed the caution posted on the trailhead signpost.

The trail quickly entered the Three Sisters Wilderness.

For first .6 miles from the trailhead the East Fork Trail made its way downhill through a green forest before reaching the East Fork South Fork McKenzie River.

Vanilla leaf

False solomonseal

Star-flowered solomonseal

Junco

Trillium

We saw a lot of this type of mushroom.

Fairybells

East Fork South Fork McKenzie River

Once we arrived at the river the trail turned west following it downhill toward the reservoir. As is the case for most river trails we were sometimes a ways above it and at other times right along it.

There were a number of woodland flowers in bloom and lots of slugs to watch out for.
Vanilla leaf, valerian, and a slug.

Oregon grape

Salmonberry

Baneberry

Violets

Sour grass

Queen’s cup

Fern unfolding

Mushrooms

Maidenhair ferns

We also watched out for the nasty Devil’s Club and its thorns.

The trail didn’t appear to see much use and was increasingly overgrown and also suffered from a fair amount of blowdown.

20200606_094535

We made it approximately 3 miles before the blowdown got us. A large tree was down across the trail as it traversed along a hillside above the river. The tree was far to big to simply step over and there were no limbs or other footholds to assist in getting over. To make matters worse the trail on the opposite side of the tree was washing out a bit. That made it look like it might be difficult to get safely off of the tree if we were able to get over it without sliding down the trunk (they can be surprisingly slippery). We could also see other trees down just a little further up the trail.

Our options were to scramble up and around the root ball that was a good 30 to 40 yards uphill or turn back. The fact that the trail had been getting more and more “wild” didn’t give us any confidence that the going would get any easier, especially considering that if we made it to the upper footbridge the forest on the south side of the river burned in a low intensity fire in 2018. We decided that the smart thing to do was to turn back here so we did.

On the way back we had a bit of excitement when we heard a ruckus off to our left. When we looked over we saw something brown charging down at us through the brush. It stopped several feet away for us which allowed us to identify it as a grouse. She was all ruffled up and yelling at us. We could hear other grouse still uphill so we guessed this was a mother protecting her young. After getting our attention she flew onto the trail then ran ahead in an attempt to lead us away from what we assumed were her young.
The grouse is the blurry brown thing ahead and to the left of the trail.

She led us for a quite a bit before she was apparently comfortable with the distance and she disappeared into the forest. As we continued we discussed our options for the rest of the day. We decided that as long as the weather held out that we would set a turnaround time and hike up the Saddle Trail a bit since it was right there where we’d parked.
Start of the Saddle Trail at FR 1993

We gave ourselves an hour as we began climbing this steep trail (1400′ elevatin gain over 2 miles). We were excited when we spotted some blooming beargrass and paintbrush.

A penstemon starting to bloom

A line of paintbrush

There were a number of other flowers blooming along the trail.
Rhododendron

Rhododendron

20200606_114636 Pacific coralroot

Northern phlox

Pinesap (I think)

Oregon grape

Strawberry

Yellowleaf iris

Sticky cinquefoil

Spotted coralroot

Nightblooming false bindweed

Largeleaf sandwort

We had made it about 1.5 miles up the trail when our hour was almost up. We were at a switchback which the trail launched steeply up from and Heather decided she was going to call it there. I decided that we were close enough to the end of the trail that I wanted to continue up to the junction with the Olallie Trail so Heather started back down while I continued uphill. Two tenths of a mile where we parted ways I came to a rocky viewpoint off a switchback. The view was not nearly as clear as it had been on our July 2018 visit, but there were flowers present this time that had not been then.

Subalpine mariposa lily

Phlox

Rosy pussytoes

I almost called it at the viewpoint but then remembered that there was a meadow just before the end of the Saddle Trail so I continued uphill hoping that there would be a decent wildflower display. I was not disappointed as there were quite a few flowers in bloom including large swaths of blue-eyed mary.

Larkspur

Biscuitroot

Blue-eyed Mary

Woodland star

Serviceberry

Monkeyflower

Royal Jacob’s ladder

Something in the pea family.

Alpine pennycress

Junco amid the flowers.

Bear scat in the meadow.

The trail left the meadow then quickly arrived at a saddle and the Olallie Trail.

Other flowers bloomed near the junction.
Tall bluebells

Trillium

Wild ginger

Bleeding heart and tall bluebells.

The Olallie Trail

After tagging the junction I headed back down. About halfway down I ran into Heather heading back up, she had been going up and down between switchbacks in an attempt to stay warm as the rainy weather that had been forecast had finally arrived along with a chilling breeze. Even though the day hadn’t gone a planned we managed to get in a little over 11 miles of hiking and enjoyed some nice sights and surprisingly pleasant weather (for the most part). As an added bonus we saw exactly zero other people on the trails which has become a rare occurrence. Happy Trails!

Flickr: East Fork and Saddle Trails

Tags East Fork South Fork McKenzie River, East Fork Trail, hiking, Oregon, Saddle Trail, Willamette National Forest

Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Olallie and Lowder Mountains – 09/01/2019

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 6, 2019
No Comments on Olallie and Lowder Mountains – 09/01/2019

For our final outing of Labor Day Weekend we set our sights on a pair of peaks in the Three Sisters Wilderness. Both the Lowder Mountain Upper Trailhead and Pat’s Saddle Trailhead (for Olallie Mountain) are located just 2 miles apart along Forest Road 1993. These were two more featured hikes from Sullivan’s 4th edition Central Cascades guidebook that we had yet to do. (Olallie Mountain was removed from the featured hikes in the 5th edition due to a 2017 fire that burned much of the route.) On their own the hike to driving time ratios didn’t pan out, but doing them both on the same day would, and as it turns out FR 1993 was in excellent shape allowing for a driving time closer to 2 1/2 hours versus the nearly 3 hours that Google predicted.

We drove south to Eugene and took Highway 126 four miles east of Blue River where we turned right on FR 19 to Cougar Dam. After turning left on FR 1993 and crossing the dam we followed the road 11.2 miles to the Pat’s Saddle Trailhead.
We chose to start with Olallie Mountain for a couple of reasons, first we thought that the lack of tree cover due to the fire might make this a warmer hike later in the day and second it was the longer of the two hikes. There are a couple of trails that leave from this trailhead. The French Pete Creek Trail is the first trail on the right. The upper section of this trail is not maintained (according the Forest Service webpage) and the forest around the lower section was impacted by fires in both 2017 and 2018. We hiked the first 5 miles of the trail from the lower trailhead prior to the fires in 2015 (post)

The trail we were taking on this trip was the second one on the right, the Olallie Trail.

This trail promptly enters the Three Sisters Wilderness amid old growth that escaped the fire.

The signs of the fire could be seen after about a third of a mile.

At the half mile mark we arrived at a small stream flowing from Wolverine Lake which was about a quarter mile uphill on our right. The forest on the right hand side of the trail had burned pretty good while the left hand side had fared much better. There was already plenty of green vegetation growing amid the snags on the hillside though.

20190901_073350 Cone flower

Sullivan had mentioned visiting Wolverine Lake by heading uphill cross country after crossing over the stream but the vegetation here looked pretty thick so we waited until we had climbed a bit beyond the stream and angled back toward the lake.
Cross country to Wolverine Lake.

There were a fair number of trees down from the fire so it wasn’t too difficult to reach the lake, but it was tricky trying to get a good look at it due to the brushy shore.

It looked like there might have been a better vantage point around the lake to our right, but it wasn’t worth fighting through the brush and fallen trees to try and reach it so we settled for the view we had and headed back to the Olallie Trail. From above, the route down along the creek looked much more appealing and we wound up taking a track much closer to what Sullivan had shown on his map to arrive back on trail. Once we were back on trail we turned right and passed through a patch of thimbleberry bushes encroaching on the trail.

We emerged from the thimbleberries and rounded a ridge end where the forest became a bit more open and many of the trees had survived the fire.

A sooty grouse caught our attention as it crossed the trail ahead of us.

The trail climbed gradually along the hillside and we marveled at the varying effects of the fire and how the forest was in different stages of recovery already.

Baneberry

Monkshood

There were also some views that might not have been there if some of the trees hadn’t burned.

South Sister

Middle and North Sister

Mt. Washington

Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack

The line of clouds obstructing the view of the mountains wasn’t exactly a welcome sight, but we could at least see some of them and it was early so maybe they would eventually burn off.

A little over 2 miles from the trailhead we arrived at a junction in a grassy saddle.

The Olallie Trail continued straight passing an old guard station site at Olallie Meadows in .9 miles then continuing deeper (and fainter) into the Three Sisters Wilderness eventually ending at Horse Lake (post). We turned right though, onto the Olallie Mountain Trail.

This trail began with a reasonably gradual climb past a series of meadows where a few late blooming flowers remained.

Aster and pearly everlasting

Columbine

The trail briefly leveled out on top of ridge where the fire had burned intensely in some areas while sparing trees in others.

After the brief respite from climbing the trail steepened below the summit of Olallie Mountain and began to wrap up and around its rocky western face.

The tread along the steep hillside here was a little sketchy in part due to the fire but we made our way up to the summit. The remains of the Olallie Mountain lookout tower still stand on the summit having been covered by firefighters to protect it from the blaze.

The three hundred and sixty degree view was impressive and would have been more so if not for the presence of clouds to the north and in front of many of the cascade peaks. On top of that our early ascent left the Sun in a less than ideal overhead position for lighting.
IMG_8306_stitch Parts of the Cascades from Mt. Jefferson to the NE to Mt. Bachelor to the SE.

Mt. Jefferson was still tangled up in the clouds.

Just a peak at Mt. Washington (which was more than we could see of Three Fingered Jack)

Middle and North Sister behind The Husband

South Sister

Broken Top

Things were a little less cloudy to the south where Cowhorn Mountain (post) and Mt. Thielsen (post) seemed to be cloud free while Diamond Peak wasn’t so lucky.

Cowhorn Mountain and Mt. Thielsen

Diamond Peak

We were able to identify the cliffs of flat topped Lowder Mountain, our next stop, to the NW.
Lowder Mountain to the left of the tree in the foreground.

Lowder Mountain

After watching the clouds pass by (but not leave) for awhile we headed back down. We had passed a single backpacker on the way up and on the way down we encountered a trio of hikers making their way up. When we got back to the stream below Wolverine Lake we spotted a frog (no wolverines though).

We completed our 8 mile hike here and drove back the two miles to the Lowder Mountain Upper Trailhead and parked at a pullout near the trailhead signboard. The signboard announced three trails: the Quaking Aspen, Lowder Mountain, and Walker Creek Trails.

We weren’t paying close attention as we set off on a trail heading for a wilderness to the left of the signboard.

Our first clue that we were on the wrong trail should have been the location of the trail signs on the signboard but away we went following the Quaking Aspen Trail downhill parallel to FR 1993. We had a feeling something might be off but a quick glance at the GPS showed that we were almost to some switchbacks which matched up with Sullivan’s map but we were surprised that they were headed downhill and not up (the one complaint we have about Sullivan’s maps are that they are not topographic so we can’t always tell when a trail is climbing or dropping). We were zoomed in too far to see the other trail behind us that switchbacked uphill. Just after turning on the first of the switchbacks Heather figured it out and got us turned in the right direction but not until we’d covered a third of a mile.

We hiked back uphill to the trailhead and looked at the signboard and area more closely. Sure enough there was another trail and wilderness to the right of the signboard (the side listing the Lowder Mountain and Walker Creek Trails).

We now set off on the Lowder Trail and began switchbacking uphill through an old growth forest.

After a quarter mile of serious climbing the trail leveled out a bit (and straightened out) as it traversed along a hillside. We soon got a quick glimpse of Olallie Mountain across the valley.

For the next 1 3/4 miles the trail alternated between meadows and forest before arriving at a junction in one of the meadows.

Skipper

This reminded us of a torture device.

This meadow had a lot of buckwheat.

Olallie Mountain again.

The lookout tower on Olallie Mountain

Diamond Peak had shed its cloud cover momentarily.

Diamond Peak

Pollinators got to pollinate.

This junction marked the start of the Walker Creek Trail which climbed up through the meadow to the right. This was actually the trail to take in order to reach the viewpoint atop Lowder Mountain.

The Lowder Mountain Trail continued on straight but beyond the junction is no longer maintained due to “lack of use”.

A series of 12 switchbacks led steeply up through the meadow and forest to a large meadow atop Lowder Mountain.
The trail heading up through some thimbleberry.

Butterfly

Another skipper

This guy was the size of my pinky.

A few scarlet gilia still in bloom.

Pearly everlasting at the edge of the large meadow.

We followed a well worn path across the broad summit to the edge of the large meadow where it turned right passing along the tree line.

Like the Lowder Mountain Trail the Walker Creek Trail is no longer maintained beyond the meadow. The clear path along the impressively large meadow is a user trail to the viewpoint above Karl and Ruth Lakes.

Karl & Ruth Lakes

The clouds were still a bit of an issue but it was now late enough in the day for the lighting to be much better.
Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack with Horsepasture Mountain (post) in the foreground.

Mt. Washington

North and Middle Sister

South Sister and Broken Top

We made our way south along the cliffs to reach a view of Mt. Bachelor.

Mt. Bachelor

In addition to the great views there was an interesting little rock feature that looked a lot like a head of some kind.

We took a good break here before heading back. On the return trip we discovered that we had actually spent a decent amount of time losing elevation traversing along the hillside on the way to the Walker Creek Trail junction. It had been so gradual that we hadn’t noticed but it was evident that we were going uphill a lot more than we’d expected once we were back on the Lowder Mountain Trail. There were quite a few butterflies out searching for the remaining flowers which gave us something to focus on (in addition to eating quite a few ripe thimbleberries).
Butterfly with a small crab spider on the next flower head to the right.

Between taking the wrong trail from the trailhead and wandering around at the viewpoint we managed to turn a 5.6 mile hike into 6.8 miles making our total for the day 14.8 miles. The elevation gains were roughly 1400′ for Olallie Mountain and 900′ for Lowder Mountain. The views were great from both peaks and we were already talking about a return trip earlier in the Summer to see what all the meadows might look like earlier in the year. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Olallie and Lowder Mountains

Tags Butterfly, hiking, Horsepasture Mountain, Karl and Ruth Lakes, Lowder Mountain, Lowder Mountain Trail, Lowder Mountain Upper Trailhead, Olallie Mountain, Olallie Mountain Lookout, Oregon, Pat's Saddle Trailhead, Quaking Aspen Trail, Thimbleberry, Three Sisters Wilderness, Walker Creek Trail, Wolverine Lake

Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Tidbits Mountain – 6/29/2019

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 1, 2019
1 Comment on Tidbits Mountain – 6/29/2019

As we continued to let the weather dictate our vacation plans we couldn’t pass up a “sunny” morning forecast for Tidbits Mountain near Blue River, OR. Another of Sullivan’s featured hikes, the trip to the site of a former lookout tower atop Tidbits Mountain is just 4.4 miles round trip from the Tidbits South Trailhead. This was actually a bit of a problem as the drive from Salem was a little over two and a half hours which meant our hiking time would most likely not be greater than our driving time which would break our rule of not driving longer than hiking. Our original plan to solve this was going to be making a second stop at the Lower McKenzie River Trailhead where we could hike as far as we liked on the McKenzie River Trail, but while researching the Tidbits Mountain hike another option presented itself.

The Gold Hill Trail travels 3.2 miles along a ridge to a junction with the Tidbits Mountain Trail three quarters of a mile from the summit of Tidbits Mountain. Instead of driving to a different trailhead we could spend some time on the Gold Hill Trail which the Forest Service warned sees only periodic maintenance.

We started our hike not at the Tidbits South Trailhead but rather along Forest Road 1509 where FR 877 headed uphill .2 miles to the trailhead on the left.
FR 877 at FR 1509

Both the Forest Service and Sullivan pointed out that FR 877 was steep and Sullivan added that turning around at the trailhead was “awkward”, thus our decision to walk up the road.

As we hiked up the road there were a couple of views of the rocky pinnacles of Tidbits Mountain on the left.

A sign marked the start of the Tidbits Mountain Trail.

The trail climbed gradually for 1.3 miles to a junction on a ridge crest. This section of trail passed through some old growth trees and was full of rhododendron blooms. It was by far the best display of rhododendron that we had seen.

There were a few other flowers along the way as well but none in anywhere near the numbers as the rhodies.
Penstemon

Showy phlox

Anemone

Iris

Arnica

At the junction we turned left following a pointer for the Tidbits Mountain Lookout.

This section of trail traversed a rocky hillside on the north side of Tidbits Mountain. Being on the north facing slope trillium were still in bloom and a few remnants of glacial lilies remained.

20190629_080903

The talus slopes below Tidbits Mountain allowed for some previews of the views to come at the summit.

Looking west toward the Green Mountain Lookout.

Green Mountain Lookout

Mt. Jefferson

Three Fingered Jack

The talus is also home to one of our favorite wild animals, the pika! They are not particularly easy to see but once you know what you are looking for with a little luck you’ll spot one of these rabbit relatives. It was a lucky day for us as we spotted two.
There is at least one pika in this picture.

There is another one in this picture.

When we weren’t scanning the rocks for pikas we did a lot of looking up at the formations above us.

Columbine and solomonseal in the talus slope.

Last of the snow along the talus.

At a saddle a half mile from the junction with the Gold Hill Trail we came to a second junction. This one was unsigned. To the right a trail headed downhill to the Tidbits West Trailhead. The Gold Hill Trail used to continue straight here but it was so faint and overgrown that we didn’t even see it on the first pass. We turned uphill to the left and began the steep .2 mile climb to the summit.

Catchfly on the way up.

Lookout remains below the summit.

Foundation remains

Wildflowers at the summit.

The 360 degree view from the summit was very good although our timing meant the sun was overhead between us and the Cascades impacting the ability to get clear photos of those mountains.
NE we could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and Three Fingered Jack.

Mt. Hood

Mt. Jefferson behind Iron Mountain and Cone Peak

Three Fingered Jack

The eastern view added Mt. Washington, The Three Sisters, and Mt. Bachelor.

Mt. Washington

Three Sisters

Mt. Bachelor

We could also just make out the lookout tower atop nearby Carpenter Mountain (post).

To the SE we could make out Maiden Peak, Mt. Thielsen, and Diamond Peak.

Maiden Peak (post)

Mt. Thielsen (post)

Diamond Peak

We spent a good amount of time on the summit taking in the view before descending to a lower viewpoint with a number of flowers.

Cat’s ear lilies

Oregon sunshine amid buckwheat

Penstemon and paintbrush

A fleabane or aster

Looking down from the lower viewpoint.

We then headed back down to the trail junction where we found the faint tread of Historical Gold Hill Trail. We followed it just far enough to get a close up view of a flower garden.

Western wallflower

Larkspur

20190629_092727 Paintbrush

20190629_093003 Cinquefoil

We returned to the Tidbits Mountain Trail and recrossed the talus slopes, this time we didn’t spot any pikas. We did stop to admire some of the flowers though.
20190629_093755 Baneberry

20190629_093642 Current

Bleeding heart, trillium and wood violets

20190629_093952 Wood violet

With the Sun starting to pass overhead Mt. Jefferson was a little more photogenic.

When we arrived back at the junction with the Gold Hill Trail we briefly searched for any sign of a former shelter that was indicated on the map.

After failing to uncover any sign of it we headed out on the Gold Hill Trail. Given the Forest Service mentioned that this trail only receives periodic maintenance we weren’t sure how far we might go but we were curious to check it out.

The trail was pretty overgrown, not crowded with brush, but it had a lot of vegetation growing in the middle of it indicating a lack of use.

We soon passed a rock outcrop where a patch of small monkeyflowers were blooming.

20190629_100226

We followed the trail a total of 2.7 miles losing a total of 800′ through a series of ups and downs as it followed a ridge to the north and east. We passed through some lovely forest filled with more blooming rhododendron and by several rock outcrops. There were occasional views of the Three Sisters and Mt. Bachelor through the trees and also spotted some deer, at least one doe and fawn, as they dashed away through the trees. Despite the lack of use and periodic maintenance the trail was in pretty good shape with just a few trees to step over.

North and Middle Sister

Mt. Bachelor

20190629_104300 Showy phlox

Washington lilies getting ready to bloom

At the 2.7 mile mark the trail began a final 400′ descent in the remaining half mile to FR 1509. We weren’t overly keen on having to climb back up that just to say we reached the road plus we had set an 11:30 turn around time and it was just after 11:20. We noticed an open knoll just off trail to the right so we decided to check it out and make this be our turn around spot.

The knoll turned out to be very interesting. In addition to some nice views there were a number of flowers.

The Two Girls

Mt. Washington and the Three Sisters

Wolf Rock an Mt. Washington

North Sister

Middle Sister

South Sister

Mt. Jefferson had been overtaken by clouds but Iron Mountain and Cone Peak were still visible.

Buckwheat and paintbrush

Wallflower and cat’s ear lilies

Penstemon and paintbrush

After exploring the knoll we headed back looking for anything we missed on our first pass. We did notice a couple of interesting old tree trunks and a grouse crossed the trail in front of us.

Young tree growing out of an old trunk.

Grouse

We made our way back to the Tidbits Mountain Trail and returned to the trailhead without seeing another person until we ran into a gentleman at the trailhead who seemed to just be out for a drive and looking around. We ended up with a 10.5 mile hike which was perfect. It was a nice way to end our vacation. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Tidbits Mountain

Tags Gold Hill Trail, hiking, lookout tower, Oregon, Pika, Tidbits Mountain, Tidbits Mountain Trail, Tidbits South Trailhead, Two Girls, wildflowers, Wolf rock

Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Horsepasture Mountain

After our last two hikes coming from Matt Reeder’s 101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region we went back to work on our goal of completing all of the featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s 100 Hikes guidebooks. We are just over 75% through his 100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades 4th edition and had our eyes set on checking off one more with a visit to the former lookout site atop Horsepasture Mountain.

The hike up Horsepasture Mountain provided a bit of a logistical challenge for a couple of reasons. First is our self imposed guideline of trying not to spend more time in the car than we do on the trail and the 1.4 mile length of the Horsepasture Mountain Trail meant we’d need to come up with some additional trail time. The second issue was the continued closure of a section of Forest Road 1993 which adds nearly 45 minutes to the drive to the Horsepasture Trailhead. Prior to the closure the drive to that trailhead would still have been over two and a half hours but with the detour Google put the time at three hours and fifteen minutes. We also have a rule against driving over three hours to any trailheads for day hikes so I began looking for alternatives. A little online research led me to a solution, the Saddle Trail which is part of the O’Leary Trail Complex.

The trail begins at the East Fork Upper Trailhead which brought the drive time from Salem under two and half hours. We parked at a small pullout on the right side of FR 1993 across from the signed Saddle Trail.

There was a caution sign on the post regarding a burn area but that was referencing portions of the O’Leary Trail Complex burned in 2017 which did not include either the Saddle Trail or the Horsepasture Mountain Trail. We were facing a nearly 1700′ climb over the next two miles to a junction at Horsepasture Saddle. Luckily the trail was well graded and in good shape as it switchbacked up through a green forest.

Wildflowers in the forest included a few washington lilies, penstemon, northern phlox and tiger lilies along with the typical group of white flowers.

As far as markers went on this trail it did cross closed Forest Road 590 after .4 miles and passed a single rocky viewpoint near the 1.75 mile mark.

Near its end the Saddle Trail passed through a small meadow with a few remaining wildflowers.

The trail ended at a signed three way junction with the Olallie Trail.

Here we turned right passing through thimbleberry bushes for a little over 100 yards to a four-way junction.

We turned onto the Horsepasture Mountain Trail which climbed gradually at first.

Flowers here included lupine, lousewort, wallflower, valerian, and fleabane.

After nearly three quarters of a mile of gradual climbing the trail steepened as it climbed through meadows with beargrass. It wasn’t quite the beargrass display we had been hoping for but there were some nice blooms along the way.

Other flowers in these meadows included coneflower, owls clover, and cat’s ear lilies.

After 1.2 miles the Horsepasture Mountain Trail began to climb the mountain’s south side through a drier wildflower meadow.

The Three Sisters and Mt. Bachelor were visible to the east as was snowy Diamond Peak to the south.
Middle Sister

Three Sisters and Mt. Bachelor

Diamond Peak

There was a nice variety of wildflowers on display.

A large cairn and remains of the old lookout marked the summit.

The view from the summit included Cascade peaks from Mt. Hood to the barely visible tip of Mt. Thielsen.
Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, and Mt. Washington.

The Three Sisters (with the top of Broken Top over South Sister’s southern shoulder) and Mt. Bachelor.

Diamond Peak(Mt. Thielsen is out there too)

Cowhorn Mountain on the left and the tip of Mt. Thielsen to the right.

We took a nice long break at the summit enjoying the views and the flowers. Birds and insects were our only company.

The only negative was seeing the fire scars left in the Three Sisters Wilderness from the awful 2017 fire season. We returned the way we’d come passing two other sets of hikers making their way up the Horsepasture Mountain Trail. We also ran into a family of grouse. A single chick flew across the trail then mama landed in the trail.

Her display of feathers and her posturing let us know that she had other chicks in the area so we stopped and waited until two more flew across the trail.

She then flew up into a tree to let us pass. The remainder of the hike was uneventful as we descended the Saddle Trail back to the trailhead. The seven mile hike and extended stay on the summit kept us within our driving to hiking time ratio but more importantly the hike had been really nice. Good views and wildflowers combined with solitude made for another great day in the Willamette National Forest. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Horsepasture Mountain

Tags Beargrass, East Fork Upper Trailhead, Forest Road 1993, grouse, hiking, Horsepasture Mountain, Horsepasture Trailhead, Horspasture Mountain Trail, O'Leary Trail Complex, Oregon, Saddle Trail, wildflowers, Willamette National Forest

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Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Lookout Creek & Carpenter Mountain

Post author By derwoodynck

Post date May 21, 2018

1 Comment on Lookout Creek & Carpenter Mountain

We found ourselves doing some last minute schedule rearranging due to an ever changing weather forecast. After deciding against a possibly wet overnight trip along the Salmon River we chose a pair of hikes we had originally planned on doing in early June. We picked these because they gave us options. The Lookout Creek Old-Growth Trail wasn’t view dependent so it didn’t matter if it was raining or partly sunny. We did however want at least partly sunny skies for the shorter hike to the lookout tower atop Carpenter Mountain so our plan was to decide on our way to Blue River, OR which hike to start with. Worst case scenario was that it showered all day in which case we would just hike the Lookout Creek Trail and save Carpenter Mountain for another time.

It was a misty drive south to Eugene and more of the same as we drove east from there on Highway 126 to Blue River so we headed to the Lookout Creek West Trailhead. The trail passes through the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, a 16,000 acre portion of the Willamette National Forest supported by Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service. The trail begins and ends on Forest Road 1506 making a car shuttle possible.

From the west trailhead the trail descended quickly down to Lookout Creek.

A small footbridge crossed a marshy area just prior to reaching a much longer bridge spanning Lookout Creek.

The trail then climbed steeply away from the creek up a ridge for about a mile then began traversing the hillside several hundred feet above the creek. The old-growth forest was the star of the hike.

Several types of wildflowers were either blooming or preparing to bloom along the way.
Red flowering currant

Large solomonseal

Oregon grape

Vanilla leaf

Violets

Trillium and bleeding heart

Bunchberry

Beargrass

Wildlife was confined to the smaller varieties.

Crab spider on trillium

Rough-skinned newt

A mile and a half from the west trailhead was the only real viewpoint along the trail. A rock outcrop there looked out over the Lookout Creek Valley.

From the viewpoint we could see that the clouds seemed to be breaking up which gave us some hope that by the time we were finished with this hike it might be clear enough to warrant the visit to Carpenter Mountain.

Beyond the viewpoint the trail crossed several small seasonal streams. Only one of these crossing was a little tricky. The log over the stream was angled down which made it a little awkward to cross.

The trail dropped back down to a second crossing of Lookout Creek before climbing back up to Road 1506 at the eastern trailhead. The bridge and the creek where much smaller at this end.

Our guidebook had described the trail in part as “A woodsy 6.3-mi trail….” (since corrected in subsequent printings) so we had been thinking that hiking the entire trail out-and-back would be 12.6 miles but a sign at this trailhead indicated that the trail was only 3.5 miles one way.

We returned the way we’d come passing a handful of hikers on the way back to our car. Since the hike wound up only being 7 miles instead of 12.6 we made it back to the car at a quarter after eleven. The sky above seemed clear enough to give Carpenter Mountain a try. The trailhead for Carpenter Mountain is located on Forest Road 350 which we had passed on Road 1506 less than a quarter mile from the Lookout Creek West Trailhead. We drove back to Road 350 and turned onto it heading uphill (north) for approximately 5 miles to a pullout at a saddle. Even though the snow pack is below normal this year, we weren’t entirely certain that we would make to the trailhead which was at an elevation just over 4400′. We knew from our Patterson Mountain outing just two weeks prior that there was still some snow present in areas starting around 4000′ feet and we had even seen one very small patch of snow along the Lookout Creek Trail around 3400′.
Snow in the bushes along the Lookout Creek Trail

The road was in pretty good shape, it appeared that the Forest Service had taken care of the trees that had fallen over the winter and aside from a few rocks here and there the drive was fine. Near the trailhead there was some snow present along the shoulder of the road but that was it. We parked at the saddle which had a decent view east to several mountains.

A short walk up the road brought us to the signed trail.

The trail climbed up through huckleberry bushes just beginning to get their leaves.

It wasn’t long before we hit the first section of snow covered trail.

For a short while the trail occasionally popped out from under the melting snow.

We had micro spikes with us but never needed them. The trail actually became snow free after about four tenths of a mile and at the half mile mark passed through a hillside meadow with a few yellow glacier lilies.

The meadow allowed for views SSW to Diamond Peak.

Beyond the meadow the trail wound its way up Carpenter Mountain through a forest that had lots of debris down from the winter.

A little under a mile from the car the trail passed an opening where we could see the basalt cliffs of Carpenter Mountain’s summit and the lookout tower atop them.

The trail took us around to the east side of the mountain where we climbed up the rocks to the lookout tower.

Looking back down at the route up

The tower wasn’t staffed yet for the season so we had the summit to ourselves. There were still some clouds in the sky but overall the views were pretty darn good. Mt. Jefferson was a little obscured and Mt. Hood was completely hidden but the rest of the Cascades from Three Fingered Jack to Diamond Peak were on full display.
Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack and Mt. Washington

Belknap & Black Craters, The Three Sisters & The Husband, and Mt. Bachelor

Diamond Peak

Panorama

One of the most interesting sights from the lookout is Wolf Rock, a monolith just to the north.

We took a nice long break at the tower and tried to identify as many of the visible peaks as possible. Starting to the north:
Iron Mountain and Cone Peak (post) with Battle Ax Mountain (post) between in the distance.

Browder Ridge (post)

Mt. Jefferson

Maxwell Butte (post) and Three Fingered Jack

Mt. Washington

Belknap Crater (post) and Black Crater (post)

The Three Sisters and The Husband

Mt. Bachelor

Fuji Mountain (post) and Diamond Peak

Tidbits Mountain

The thought of an actual meal finally tore us away and we headed back down. It was a great reward for a relatively easy two mile hike. Even though the trail gained over 900′ of elevation over the course of the mile it was a fairly gradual climb. The old-growth trail had also been very nice, it was a pretty forest with lots of bird song. All in all not a bad way to spend a day. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Lookout Creek & Carpenter Mountain

Tags Carpenter Mountain, Carpenter Mountain Lookout, Carpenter Mountain Trail, Crab spider, H.J. Andrews Expirimental Forest, hiking, Lookout Creek, Lookout Creek Old-Growth Trail, old growth, Oregon, Willamette National Forest, Wolf rock

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Hiking McKenzie River Middle Santiam Old Cascades Oregon Throwback Thursday Trip report

Throwback Thursday – Browder Ridge and Sahalie & Koosah Falls

Post author By derwoodynck

Post date March 8, 2018

4 Comments on Throwback Thursday – Browder Ridge and Sahalie & Koosah Falls

This week we are revisiting a pair of hikes we took on 9/8/12. A pair of Heather’s running buddies were going to be running the McKenzie River 50k that day and we wanted to be a the finish line to greet them so we found a hike in the area that we thought would make that possible. The 8.5 mile up Browder Ridge seemed to be a perfect fit.

We started at the Gate Creek Trailhead just 4.5 miles off of Highway 20 via Hackleman Creek Road and Road 1598.

The trail never really got close to Gate Creek as it climbed through forest and fern filled meadows.

Just over a mile and a half from the trailhead we arrived at a viewpoint which provided views of the Cascade Mountains from Mt. Jefferson south to the Three Sisters. It was an unfortunately hazy view due to the sun still rising in the east and the presence of smoke from the Pole Creek Fire.
Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack

Mt. Washington and the Three Sisters

We continued on climbing gradually for another 1.5 miles to a junction. White pearly everlasting and pink fireweed could be seen along the trail. More hazy mountain views greeted us along the way with Diamond Peak joining the line of Cascade peaks.

We also had a nice view of our ultimate goal – Browder Ridge.

At the junction we turned right onto the Heart Lake Trail.

This trail passed below the rocky cliffs of Browder Ridge passing through the remains of an early summer wildflower meadow before reentering the forest.

As the trail reentered the trees we left the Heart Lake Trail turning uphill along the rocky ridge.

A .2 mile scramble along the ridge brought us to the 5760′ summit of Browder Ridge.

Despite the haze from the Pole Creek Fire the views were pretty good.

After enjoying the view we headed back down to the trailhead. Butterflies had begun to come out as we made our way back.

We got back to the car with time to spare before the end of the race so we made a second stop on the way to the finish line. We drove east on Highway 20 to its junction with Highway 126 where we turned right for 5.2 miles to the Sahalie Falls Trailhead.

A half mile segment of the Waterfalls Loop Trail runs between Sahalie and Koosah Falls along the McKenzie River here. It’s possible to complete a 2.6 mile loop incorporating the McKenzie River Trail, but we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the end of the race so we did an out and back past Sahalie Falls to Koosah Falls.

Sahalie Falls was not far at all from the parking area.

We headed downstream following the beautifully blue McKenzie River to Koosah Falls.

We returned the way we’d come but instead of returning to the car we had just enough time to visit the top of Sahalie Falls.

These are two really nice and easily accessed waterfalls. We returned to Koosah Falls in 2013 along the McKenzie River Trail but have yet to be back to Sahalie Falls.

We made it to the finish line of the race in plenty of time to see Heather’s friends finish their 50k making it a successful day.

We are planning on heading back to Browder Ridge this year to see what the meadows look like earlier in the Summer. If all goes well we will be coming from the other end of the Browder Ridge Trail and may even make an attempt to reach Heart Lake along an unmaintained portion of the Heart Lake Trail. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Browder Ridge and Sahalie & Koosah Falls

Tags Browder Ridge, Gate Creek Trailhead, Heart Lake Trail, hiking, Koosah Falls, McKenzie River, McKenzie River Trail, Oregon, Sahalie Falls, Waterfalls Loop Trail

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Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Castle Rock

Post author By derwoodynck

Post date June 5, 2017

No Comments on Castle Rock

We continue to have to swap out our originally scheduled hikes due to the above normal snow levels and late melt this year. Our most recent hike to Castle Rock was the result of one such switch. Castle Rock it the site of a former lookout tower atop a 3808′ rocky outcrop. Castle Rock is located near the McKenzie River off Highway 126 approximately 5 miles beyond Blue River. There are several possible trailheads that can be used to reach the lookout site including an option at the end of Road 480 that would make the hike less than three miles. For our visit we chose to begin at the King Castle Trailhead. A map at this trailhead showed the entire O’Leary Trail Complex.

The trails in the area are open to mountain bikes and we did see a handful of riders but not until we were well into our descent. The King Castle Trail was in excellent shape as it passed through the forest.

There were lots of woodland flowers in bloom.

Star flower and queen’s cup

Foam Flower

Inside-out Flower

Anemone

Wild Ginger

Wintergreen

Northern Phlox

Striped coralroot

Spotted coralroot

Rhododendron

Wild rose

The trail climbed approximately 1500′ in almost 4 miles to a crossing of Road 480.

The trail continued on the far side of the road where it climbed for a bit before dropping slightly to a junction with the Castle Rock Trail.

A dogwood tree was in full bloom near this junction.

We turned right onto the Castle Rock Trail which climbed for another half mile to a junction with a trail from the upper trailhead along Road 480.

None of the climb had seemed particularly steep considering we knew we had a total of 2600′ to gain from the trailhead. We were expecting the final mile to seem quite a bit steeper but the trail made great use of switchbacks leaving the final 700′ to feel only slightly harder than the earlier 1900′. The flowers along the final mile had changed from those we had seen at the lower elevations. Here fairy slippers and vanilla leaf were still blooming.

It had been an overcast morning and now we were climbing up into the clouds.

It was cool but not cold. Although, for a rubber boa, that we spotted next to a tree along the trail, it was way to chilly.

The trail switchbacked up to a meadow near some rocky cliffs where we found a surprisingly nice display of wildflowers.

Bindweed

A saxifrage

Cat’s ear lilies

Annual agoseris

Prairie star and plectritis

Monkeyflower

Butterflies on buckwheat

Ookow getting ready to bloom

Yellowleaf iris

Sorrel

At the top of the meadow there was a viewpoint to the NE (with no view today) where several other flowers stood out.
Parsley

Larkspur

Penstemon

Paintbrush

The trail then climbed past some black oaks, chinkapin trees and a madrone to the old lookout site.

With the clouds surrounding us we weren’t going to be getting a view of the Three Sisters so we explored the rocks looking for more wildflowers before taking a break at the lookout site.

After resting and eating lunch, we headed back down through the little meadow. Here we noticed that there were little beetles on one particular type of plant.

Neither of us had noticed them on the way up but they were on every one of those plants. It’s amazing how much we miss even when we think we are paying close attention. 🙂

Another example of that were the many candy sticks we noticed on the way back to the car. We had seen one a little ways off the trail on our way up to Castle Rock, but on the return trip we noticed at least a dozen others popping up along the trail.

The sun came out near the end of our hike leaving us to wonder if there would be a view at the top in the afternoon. One of the few drawbacks of starting first thing in the morning is that we often reach viewpoints before the morning clouds have burned off.

Even without the view though this had been a really nice 12.2 mile hike. It’s certainly one that we’d do again, especially since we didn’t get the view, and given it’s relatively low elevation it’s a good option when there is still snow higher up.
Happy Trails!

Flickr: Castle Rock

Tags Castle Rock, Castle Rock Trail, hiking, King Castle Trail, McKenzie River, Monkeyflower, Northern Phlox, O'Leary Trail Complex, Oregon, Rubber boa, Vanilla Leaf, Wild ginger

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Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Clear Lake

Post author By derwoodynck

Post date June 19, 2014

3 Comments on Clear Lake

We wanted to get one last hike in on the way home from Central Oregon. Originally we’d planned on hiking up to the summit of the Middle Pyramid on the Three Pyramids Trail, but we were greeted with clouds and rain as we came to Santiam Pass. Knowing there wouldn’t be any views we changed our plans and headed to Clear Lake 10 miles south of the Santiam Jct. on Highway 126.

The McKenzie River begins at Clear Lake where old lava flows created the lake by covering and damming the river. On a clear day The Three Sisters and Mt. Washington can be seen from various points around the lake but with the clouds we would be content with the clear, colorful water of the lake.

We began our counter-clockwise loop at a picnic area near the Clear Lake Resort.

The trail passed through a nice Douglass Fir forest with glimpses of the lake to our left where we spotted our first on trail beargrass of the year.

At about the one mile mark on an arm of the lake which feeds the McKenzie we got our first taste of the draw of Clear Lake.

A footbridge led us over the outlet of the McKenzie River to the eastern shore of Clear Lake.

The trail on the eastern side spent more time in the open and closer to the lake as it crossed over several lava flows. Here we spotted several birds, ducks, and colorful wildflowers.
Ouzel

Penstemon

Tiger Lily

Merganser and her ducklings

Wild Rose

Stellars Jay

Barrow’s Goldeneye

Washington Lily

Another family of ducks

The water in the lake became more colorful as we arrived across the lake from the resort.

Shortly after passing the resort on the far shore we came to the Great Springs which feed the lake with 38 degree water allowing the lake to remain unfrozen all year. They emptied into a beautiful small pool reminiscent of the Tamolitch Pool which lies further down the McKenzie.

After the Great Springs the trail crosses Fish Lake Creek on a footbridge. This creek only flows during the Spring snow melt.

Finally we swung out around an arm of the lake where Ikenick Creek flows into the lake.

Back on the west side of the lake we were again in the fir forest where many white woodland flowers were in bloom.

We quickly reached the resort area which was busy with campers. The picnic area was just on the other side and before we knew it our Central Oregon hiking tour was over (for now). Happy Trails!

flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/sets/72157644778548280/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deryl.yunck/media_set?set=a.10204239083124439.1073741887.1448521051&type=1

Tags Barrow's Goldeneye, Clear Lake, ducklings, Fish Lake Creek, Great Springs, hiking, Ikenick creek, McKenzie River, Merganser, Oregon, Ouzel, Stellars Jay

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