Category: Oregon

Joyce Lake and Nasty Rock – 07/13/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 15, 2024
2 Comments on Joyce Lake and Nasty Rock – 07/13/2024

Our quest to seek out new to us trails had us turning back to Matt Reeder’s “101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region” (1st edition). Because the book was released in 2016 it pre-dates the 2020 Riverside and Beachie Creek Fires that devastated much of this region leaving many of the hike descriptions out-of-date. We were fortunate enough to experience most of the hikes, at least in part, prior to those fires.

One of the hikes that we had not yet gotten to was Reeder’s hike #4-Upper Molalla Divide. Reeder describes three options starting at two different trailheads ranging from a 0.7-mile loop at Joyce Lake and a 2.8-mile out-and-back to Nasty Rock. These hikes largely escaped the recent fires except for a couple of small sections of the trail to Nasty Rock scarred by the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire. On the other hand, other than the trail around Joyce Lake, the trails are rarely if ever maintained.

We decided to start our day at Joyce Lake when we found the trailhead parking area empty. Two of the three described hikes start from this trailhead, the very short loop around Joyce Lake, and a 2.6-mile loop combining the abandoned Baty Butte Trail and gravel roads.
The unsigned trail enters the forest across from a small pullout.

The trail quickly arrives at a campsite where we then headed left on the loop around the lake which is stocked with fish.

Bunchberry

Fish

Rough skinned newt

After completing the loop around the lake we headed back toward the road from the campsite looking for the abandoned Baty Butte Trail. It wasn’t easy to spot but a metal diamond on a tree marked the start of this trail.

After pushing through some Rhododendron the trail became a little easier to follow.

We had hiked a portion of this old trail in 2019 to Baty Butte itself (post) and were hoping to get more of the trail in, but just under half a mile from the start of the trail we came to a small talus slope.
Flagging and some old trail maintenance along the Baty Butte Trail.

On the far side of the talus a tree had fallen onto the thick vegetation creating a matt of leaves and branches that covered the tread.
We could see the tread continuing on the other side of the thicket.

Vegetation covering the trail.

We initially thought that we might be able to dip below the downed tree, but the hillside below was covered with thorny devil’s club. Going up and around didn’t look any more promising, and even if we did find a way around this there was another mile of trail before reaching a powerline road that we would be turning onto. We accepted defeat here and turned back. Between Joyce Lake and the failed attempt at the longer loop our hike here was just 1.5-miles with a couple hundred feet of elevation gain.

From the Joyce Lake Trailhead we continued 3.9-miles to the trailhead for the Nasty Rock Hike. (Note that online searches and Google maps for the Nasty Rock Trailhead will provide results for the Willamette National Forest’s Nasty Rock Trailhead which is currently closed due to the Beachie Creek fire and does not actually lead to Nasty Rock.)
The trailhead is located at a turnaround at the end of BLM road 7-4E-11.1.

The BLM refers the Nasty Rock Trail as “historic” and the area was part of a BLM study for addition to the adjacent Opal Creek Wilderness in 2013. That study found that the area met all the criteria and characteristics for a wilderness, but the addition never moved forward. The 2013 study mentioned that the trail was not being annually maintained but it was still “usable”. Having just been turned back on our earlier hike we were prepared for a similar experience here, although a 2022 trip report on Oregonhikers.org indicated that the trail was still passable at that time. While the trail itself still shows on the BLM’s recreation map there is no trailhead symbol shown.

Before setting off we took a moment to admire the roadside wildflowers.

Oregon sunshine, lupine and paintbrush.

Larkspur, paintbrush, and Oregon sunshine.

Penstemon, paintbrush, and valerian.

The Nasty Rock Trail, like the Baty Butte Trail, was not obvious from the parking area. Again a metal diamond on a tree helped us locate the trail heading uphill from the road below.

The trail initially climbs as it wraps around a shoulder of Burnt Mountain. The tread is narrow in places, and a bit overgrown.

Westen featherbells

Bistort

Arnica

Bear sign on the trail.

Paintbrush and lousewort

The trail then traversed the hillside below Burnt Mountain entering the Beachie Creek fire scar a third of a mile from the start of the trail.
Nasty Rock from the trail.

Entering the fire scar.

The trail was especially overgrown in the fire scar.

Penstemon

Columbine along the trail.

Valerian

Exiting the fire scar after less than 100 yards.

The trail continued on a fairly level grade past Burnt Mountain then curving to the West as it followed a ridge toward Nasty Rock.

While none of the several downed trees posed much of an issue the condition of the trail made for slow going.

The trail crossed the ridge near the mile mark where views opened up.
Nasty Rock sticking up ahead.

Not Nasty Rock further along the ridge and in the Beachie Creek fire scar.

Wildflowers were blooming in the openings along the ridge.

Arrowleaf buckwheat

Checkerspot on Oregon sunshine

Oregon sunshine

Table Rock (post)

Mt. Hood peecking up from behind a ridge.

Scarlet gilia

Nasty Rock from the trail.

Flowers below the trail.

Flowers above the trail.

Buckwheat

As the trail neared Nasty Rock it entered another section of forest burned in the Beachie Creek fire.

The trail steepened noticeably before effectively ending on the SW shoulder of Nasty Rock.

There were a lot of nice Washington lilies below Nasty Rock with more to come over the next week or two.

Wintergreen

Nasty Rock from the trail.

The trail below Nasty Rock.

Nasty Rock from the end of the “trail”. Prior to the 2020 fire a rougher use trail continued on to Not Nasty Rock, but we didn’t see any obvious tread. (We weren’t really looking though either.) We made the fairly easy scramble to the top of Nasty Rock and took a short break.

The view was all too familiar with the horizon filled with wildfire smoke. Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood were easy to see, but other Cascades such as Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington, and the Three Sisters were barely visible through the haze.
Mt. Jefferson from Nasty Rock.

Mt. Jefferson with the flat-topped Battle Ax (post), and rounded Whetstone Mountain (post) to the right.

Mt. Hood in the distance.

French Creek Ridge with the rounded Marten Buttes (post) in the foreground. Behind is the flat-topped Coffin Mountain (post), Mt. Washington, and the Three Sisters.

Looking out across the Molalla River drainage to the Table Rock Wilderness.

Rooster Rock is the rock outcrop to the left with Table Rock the tall feature to the right. Pechuck Lookout can be seen on the lower hilltop in the center foreground.

Not Nasty Rock from Nasty Rock. The highest peak diagonally left of Not Nasty Rock is Rocky Top (post).

We were joined at the summit by a swarm of flying ants obsessed with this fir tree.

After our break we headed back. There were several breaks along the way as we stopped to watch the numerous butterflies visiting the flowers.
Checkerspot on Oregon sunshine

Swallowtail resting on serviceberry.

Blue bells of Scotland

Fritillaries on mountain coyote mint

Clodius parnassian on mountain coyote mint.

Fleabane

Buckwheats, paintbrush, Oregon sunshine and at least one butterfly.

Scarlet gilia

Larkspur

Washington lily

Inside-out flower

Fritillary

Beardtongue

Pink pyrola

Bead lily a.k.a. Queen’s cup

Bunchberry

Cat’s ear mariposa lily

Approaching the road.

Another round of roadside flowers occurred before packing up and heading home.

Larkspur and yarrow

Checkerspots on Oregon sunshine

Including the roadside flower wanderings our hike here came to 3 miles with approximately 600′ of elevation gain.

At 4.5 miles total these two stops made for a fairly easy day despite the rough trail conditions. The roads were in good shape to both trailheads, but please note that the area sees heavy log truck traffic on weekdays. We didn’t see anyone during either stops and somewhat surprisingly still didn’t see anyone parked at the Joyce Lake Trailhead when we passed back by close to Noon.

Nasty Rock was a bit of a bittersweet hike seeing all of the familiar areas burned by the 2020 fires, but we were glad to have finally made it up there. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Joyce Lake and Nasty Rock

Tags Baty Butte Trail, blm, Butterfly, hiking, Joyce Lake, Molalla Divide, Molalla River, Nasty Rock, Nasty Rock Trail, Nasty Rock Trailhead, Not Nasty Rock, opal creek wilderness, Oregon, wildflowers

Corvallis Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Willamette Valley

Independence Riverfront Parks – 07/06/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 9, 2024
No Comments on Independence Riverfront Parks – 07/06/2024

The arrival of a heat dome on July 4th had us rethinking our hiking plans. We’d had a nice but warm hike on the Olallie Trail on the 4th (post), but the heat was only forecasted to get worse over the next few days. We were still recovering from that hike but still wanted to get out for a short stroll to stretch our legs, so we decided to make the fifteen minute drive to Independence, OR for a walk along the Willamette River.

The city of Independence has been developing parks along the river over the last 20+ years starting with Riverview Park which opened in 2005. Our plan was to start at this park and hike north past the community dog park and around the Independence Sports Park which is still under development. Due to the city’s 4th of July celebrations we weren’t able to park at the park so we began our hike from South D Street and walked down Osprey Lane to reach the park.

From the northern end of the park’s parking area we crossed Ash Creek on a footbridge.

Ash Creek

On the far side of the bridge we spotted a doe who was on her way to the creek.

After watching the doe for a while we continued on. The wide paved path made for an easy stroll. It was early enough that it wasn’t too warm yet, and most of the path was in the shade which also helped.

In addition to the single doe we spotted a variety of birds along our route.

Passing the dog park.

Sign at the start of the sports park.

Bird in a nest.

Interpretive sign along the trail.

Shortly after entering the sports park we forked right onto the soft surface Willamette River Trail

Stellar’s jay

Flowers along the path.

Eventually the field on the left will be developed into sports fields.

Vetch

Morning sunlight showing why it’s a robin “red breast”.

Sparrow

Going around the open field brought is into the sunlight, but it still hadn’t warmed up too much.

Swallows

Spotted towhee with breakfast.

When we got back to Riverview Park instead of taking Osprey Lane back to our car we took a paved path from the southern end of the parking area.
Amphitheater at Riverview Park.

This paved path passed between the river and apartments for a little over a third of a mile to South Main Street where we turned right (north) for a block to return to South D Street and our car.
Willamette River

Killdeer

Pointers on South Main Street.

This was a perfect recovery walk coming in a 3.1-miles with virtually no elevation gain.

We were pleasantly surprised with the number of birds and how nice the parks looked even after having just hosted the 4th of July celebrations. Hopefully the heat dome will move on soon and that will be the end of abnormally warm weather for the Summer, but it’s nice to have options such as this available. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Independence Riverfront Parks

Tags Ash Creek, hiking, Independence, Independence Community Dog Park, Independence Sports Park, Oregon, Riverview Park, willamette river, Willamette River Trail

Hiking Oakridge Area Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Hiyu Ridge via Grasshopper Meadow – 06/29/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 1, 2024
No Comments on Hiyu Ridge via Grasshopper Meadow – 06/29/2024

**Note the 2024 Young Grasshopper Fire burned over a portion of this hike including Grasshopper Meadow.**

In 2017 we did an overnight backpack to Grasshopper Meadow via Chucksney Mountain (post). During that trip we hiked a 9.8-mile section of the 13.5-mile long Grasshopper Mountain Trail #3569. The section covered was from the Box Canyon Trailhead to the base of Grasshopper Mountain. The trail does not go up the mountain’s summit but instead from the saddle at the base heads around the mountain and then follows Hiyu Ridge down to the Grasshopper Trailhead (approx 4 miles from the saddle).

Grasshopper Meadow was a beautiful destination making a second visit appealing and including the remainder of the Grasshopper Mountain Trail pushed it up on our list of planned hikes. We had a decision to make regarding where to start for this second visit though. In his “100 Hikes Central Oregon Cascades” guidebook Sullivan includes the hike from the Grasshopper Trailhead along Hiyu Ridge in the more hikes section at the back of the book. He also includes a hike to Grasshopper Meadow via the Grasshopper Meadow Trail in the back of the book beginning 850′ below the ridge at the top of the meadow at what is marked on Google Maps as the Grasshopper Meadow Trailhead. Hike Oregon also covers the same hike on their website here. Interestingly the Forest Service map and website do not mention this trailhead, but they do show the Grasshopper Meadow Trail #3314. We opted to start at the Grasshopper Meadow Trailhead for two main reasons. First it would allow us to pass through Grasshopper Meadow at two different times of the day instead of it being our turnaround point. The second, and more important reason, was Sullivan’s description of the hike along Hiyu Ridge indicated that we should be prepared to step over some logs. That’s code for lack of trail maintenance which could mean that this section of the trail could be impassable. The Forest Service website didn’t provide any trail conditions. We could have called to check, but we figured worst case scenario we could redo some of the 2017 hike if necessary.

A word of warning regarding the drive to this trailhead. There was about a half mile section of Road 1929 where a good amount of gullying has occurred. We’d recommend high clearance, but somehow there was a Toyota Prius parked here (just out of frame).

The trail began with a gradual climb through a mixed conifer forest before steepening as the meadows began.
Valerian along the trail.

Vanilla leaf and anemones carpeting the forest floor.

There were wildflowers along the vast majority of this hike which resulted in our taking way too many photos. I will try and limit what I include here, just know that what gets shared will be a small portion of what we saw.
Star-flowered false solomonseal.

Coneflower with lupine behind.

Penstemon

Near the three-quarter mile mark we took a short spur trail to the left to visit a spring at the base of a post.

Monkeyflower

We continued steeply uphill from the spring for 0.3-miles where we took another short spur trail, this time to the right and a view of Diamond Peak.

Lupine

Sub-alpine mariposa lily

Moth on fleabane.

Waterleaf

Tiger lily

Pussytoes

From left to right the peaks with snow are: The Twins (post), Maiden Peak (post), Fuji Mountain (post), and Diamond Peak (post).

Diamond Peak

We continued uphill from the viewpoint following the trail to a post in a large rocky area that was filled with larkspur.

Grasshopper Mountain above the meadow.

The post in the rocky area.

When we visited in 2017 it had been mid-July, and the larkspur show was over.

The Grasshopper Meadow Trail ends at these rocks for all intents and purposes. There is no clear path from the post up to the Grasshopper Mountain Trail which is approximately 150′ above running along the ridge. We made our way uphill trying to avoid as many plants as possible and picked up the trail which was marked by periodic rock cairns.
A cairn marks the Grasshopper Mountain Trail.

We turned left on the trail and headed toward Grasshopper Mountain.

Looking out over the meadow.

Fuji Mountain and Diamond Peak

The saddle below Grasshopper Mountain.

From the ridgetop we gained a view to the NE which included the Three Sisters, Broken Top, and Mt. Bachelor (post).

The Three Sisters and Broken Top

Mt. Bachelor

We crossed over the ridge and continued on the Grasshopper Mountain Trail which was, as we had suspected, in need of some trail maintenance.
The last of the snow, at least it is all we saw.

Glacier lilies near the tiny snow patch.

It was evident that the trail does get maintained on occasion, but none of it appeared recent near Grasshopper Mountain.

Crossing over the ridge changed the mix of wildflowers we’d been seeing adding in some early season bloomers such as trillium.

Anemone

Violets

Bleeding heart

Oregon bluebells

The trail passed through a small fire scar on the backside of Grasshopper Mountain where we had to briefly leave the trail to find a way over and around blowdown.

The Three Sisters and Broken Top were visible from this area.

Back on the slightly overgrown trail.

As we made our way through the fire scar more mountains joined the view including Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack, and Mt. Jefferson.

Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack

Bears appear to use the trail more than hikers. This was the largest of three piles we’d pass on the day.

Arnica

After navigating the fire scar we were able to more or less stay on the tread save for a couple of brief detours around blowdown. That being said there were numerous trees that we had to step, or in some cases climb over. There were also numerous burrows to watch out for along with a lot of forest debris which made for a slow and hard hike. The other thing that slowed us down was the sheer number and variety of flowers.
This is both the trail and a front (back) door.

Valerian and tall bluebells

Fairy bells

Meadowrue

Moth on valerian.

Jacob’s-ladder

While the trail was overgrown in places it was passable and the tread was in pretty good shape.

Fringecup

Possibly a speedwell but unsure and it was the only one we saw.

More blowdown to maneuver around.

Edith’s checkerspot

Trail passing through an area full of monkeyflower and larkspur.

Cinquefoil, larkspur, and buckwheat

Scarlet gilia

Paintbrush

Bluehead gilia and silverleaf phacelia

Approximately 1.5-miles from the saddle below Grasshopper Mountain the trail again crossed the ridge to avoid a rocky cliff area.
The rocky area from the trail as it crossed the ridge.

We could see that there were a lot of flowers on the rocks, but the trail dropped below the ridge quickly and my first attempt to scramble up to see the flowers was too soon and I just ended up in the brush on the ridgetop. On our way back I tried again, this time finding the correct spot where I was awarded not only with the amazing flowers but also another great mountain view.
Columbine crowding the trail.

The wildflower covered rocks on the way back.

Arrowleaf buckwheat and Oregon sunshine

The Three Sisters and Broken Top with some clouds moving in.

Paintbrush surrounded by buckwheat, bluehead gilia, and stonecrop.

Scarlet gilia

Wallflower

Wild rose

The trail stayed on the west side of the ridge for the remaining 2.3-miles. Just over a third of a mile from the rocky viewpoint the trail passed a small rock outcrop which we thought looked like and it might be a good spot for a break on the way back. Not far beyond the outcrop we came to another tricky downed log where Heather decided that was enough. She would go back to the outcrop and while I would continue. If the trail was passable I would continue for no more than 45 minutes as it looked like that would be enough time to reach the Grasshopper Trailhead based on the distance shown on the GPS.

Beargrass near the outcrop.

The outcrop from the trail.

Blowdown

More blowdown

Western meadow fritillary

Bunchberry

Recent trail maintenance! There were a couple of cut trees in the final mile, but there were also still many to step over.

I had misjudged two things when Heather and I had split up. One was just how far the trailhead was, and the other was how much elevation I would be losing to get there.
The trail dropped low enough that there were several rhododendron blooming.

Queen’s cup.

South Sister (post) and Broken Top (post).

It turned out I had been almost 2-miles from the trailhead and needed to lose over 850′ of elevation to reach it. Luckily the trail was in a little better shape at this end again. I was able to keep a good pace and I arrived at Grasshopper Saddle with a couple of minutes to spare.

Given that the Forest Service lists this as an official trailhead I was expecting a little more than a post with a road number and a faded laminated sheet of paper.
Had I not just come down the trail I might not have even noticed it was there.

Cardwell’s penstemon

I realized on my way down that while I was making good time going in that direction, I was going to be hard pressed to maintain the same pace going uphill. Fortunately for me it wasn’t a particularly warm day, so it only took me an extra five minutes to make it back to the outcrop. When I joined Heather on the outcrop she said she was just starting to wonder if she should start to worry. (I might have made a little better time had I not kept taking pictures, but then again, those breaks let me catch my breath.)
Starflower

Ginger

Mt. Bachelor through the trees.

Musk monkeyflower

Grasshopper Mountain from the outcrop.

Cliff beardtongue

After I took a much-needed break we headed back. We kept our eyes out for flowers we’d missed on our first pass while we watched the various pollinators visiting the blossoms.
Blue-eyed Mary

Cicada, not a pollinator but interesting to see.

Solomonseal

Variable-leaf collomia

Honeysuckle

Oregon grape

Pollinator 1

Pollinator 2

Pollinator 3 (Clodius parnassian)

Bees on bastard toadflax

Checkerspot on groundsel

Naked broomrape (Aphyllon purpureum)

Penstemon

Our guess is this is mile three from Grasshopper Saddle. We didn’t notice any other numbers and missed this one on our first pass.

Dwarf bramble

Strawberry

Cinquefoil

It started clouding up in the afternoon.

Back at the saddle below Grasshopper Mountain.

We took another break shortly after reaching Grasshopper Meadow then headed down to the spring where we both cooled off using the spring water.

Great artic butterfly. There were a lot of these flying about. Their dorsum is a bright orange, but they rarely would open their wings when they landed.

The checkerspots on the other hand are happy to open their wings.

False hellebore

It clouded up over Diamond Peak as well.

Lewis flax

Orange agoseris

A Lycaendae on a lupine leaf.

Moth on a mariposa lily.

Butterflies gathering at the spring.

After refreshing ourselves with the spring water we continued back to the trailhead where we found the Prius still there. We never saw or heard another person on this hike. Not seeing anyone along Hiyu Ridge isn’t all that surprising given the trail conditions, but not seeing anyone in the meadow was a little surprising.

The Prius at the TH. We parked on the shoulder in a pullout.

The hike from trailhead to trailhead came to 11.5-miles (according to the GPS) with a little over 2000′ of elevation gain (according to the topo maps, and my legs).

Despite the rough trail conditions this was a beautiful hike. The flowers were the highlight, but there were several good mountain views scattered throughout. Hopefully the gullies in FR 1929 can be repaired or at least kept from getting any worse. Forest Road 1927 at Grasshopper Saddle seemed to be a good gravel road, but for that to be a viable option for anyone other than those that don’t mind a challenge the trail needs to be cleaned up. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Hiyu Ridge via Grasshopper Meadow

Tags butterflies, Grasshopper Meadow, Grasshopper Meadow Trail, Grasshopper Mountain, Grasshopper Mountain Trail, hiking, Hiyu Ridge, mountain view, Oregon, wildflowers, Willamette National Forest

Hiking Oakridge Area Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Buckhead Nature Trail and Deception Butte – 06/19/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 22, 2024
No Comments on Buckhead Nature Trail and Deception Butte – 06/19/2024

Mt. Yoran and Diamond Peak from Deception Butte

Juneteenth provided us an opportunity for a mid-week hike, and we used that opportunity to visit a pair of trails near Westfir, OR.

We began our day by stopping at the Buckhead Nature Trailhead for a short warmup hike.

A paved interpretive loop explores a riparian zone along the Middle Fork Willamette River.

Signboard about a tenth of a mile from the trailhead.

The loop began on the far side of the footbridge.

We hiked the loop clockwise and made our way back to the car. There were a few flowers and an obstructed view of the river. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife save for a couple of birds and a snail.

As far as we could remember we’d never seen a bench on the other side of a fence before.

Middle Fork Willamette River through the vegetation.

Tiger lily

Self-heal

Snail

Mock orange

The hike here was a little over half a mile, a good warm-up for our next stop at the Deception Butte Trailhead which was only 3.5 miles away.

We had attempted this hike in October 2017 (post), but a 2014 wildfire had left the trail beyond the creek itself unpassable. The trail remained closed until 2022 when the Forest Service and volunteers were finally able to clear and make the necessary repairs to the fire damage.

The fire mostly spared the forest up to the footbridge crossing Deception Creek.

Anemone

There are a few junctions prior to reaching the footbridge. The first was the only one with any signage. We stayed on the correct trail by ignoring side trails to the left that headed uphill and on the right that led down to Deception Creek.

We turned left at the signed junction following half a sign for the Deception Butte Trail.

At the last unsigned junction there was a signboard, but with nothing on it. (We went straight.)

Warning sign for the burned area ahead.

The footbridge over Deception Creek.

Deception Creek

On the far side of the footbridge the trail entered the fire scar and climbed steeply up a small ridge.

The trail then dropped steeply down on the other side of the ridge.

Due to the fire damage the tread here and for much of the remainder of the trail is rocky and somewhat slick so trekking poles came in very handy. There were also a few spots where some of the tread was missing requiring care. The trail was free of any significant debris, and we only had to step over one small tree. From the bridge it was approximately 3 miles to the summit with around 2300′ of elevation gain. The trail used a combination of switchbacks and longer traverses to gain the elevation. The grade varied widely with a few steep sections and some gentler climbs
The amount of trail work needed to clear the trail was evident by the sheer number of cut trees along the length of the trail.

This was from 2017 near the same stretch of trail.

View up the canyon from the trail.

Clodius parnassian

There was a lot of vegetation along the trail, so we had to keep an eye out for poison oak which was present at times on the lower two-thirds of the trail. It was never much of a problem, but there were a couple of plants crowding the trail that we had to maneuver around.

Moth

Starflower

Rhododendron

Northern cloudywing

Big deervetch

Hummingbird

Kreuger Rock with Patterson Mountain (post ) behind to the left.

Groundsel

One of the damaged sections of trail.

There was some forest that survived the fire starting near the 3.5-mile mark where the fire burned less intensely.

Townsend’s solitaire

Canada jay

There were a few views of the Three Sisters through the remaining trees. (Middle & South Sister here)

Inside-out flower

Looking up as the trail neared the summit.

Woodpecker

Common whipplea

Anemone

The Deception Butte Trail arriving at Deception Butte.

Beargrass

From the actual summit the view is limited in every direction save the south.

A user trail heads SW and drops to an open saddle where you can get an unobstructed view of Diamond Peak to the SE.

Looking down at the saddle and wondering if it was really worth having to climb back up.

I had arrived before Heather and decided I needed to see the view, so I headed down to the saddle where there were I found quite a bit of wildlife and a few flowers.
Northern flicker

Lizard

Rock outcrop on the other side of the saddle.

Tolmie’s mariposa lilies

Bluehead gilia

Squirrel

Oakridge in the valley below with Diamond Peak (post) on the right. The smaller peak with snow to the left of Diamond is Mt. Yoran, the triangle shaped peak is Coyote Mountain, and the peak with a little snow to the left of that is Fuji Mountain (post).

Diamond Peak

Oakridge

Leafy fleabane

Oregon sunshine on the hillside looking up Deception Butte from the saddle.

Wild onion

One of the fritillary butterflies.

Fly inside a Tolmie’s mariposa lily.

Hether had joined me at the summit, and we took a nice break in the shade on the mossy ground before heading back down.

There is a very steep trail just below the summit that leads to an upper trailhead. The Forest Service does not recommend using these though as the trail is said to be slippery and steep. We can vouch for the steep just by having looked down from the Deception Butte Trail.

Plectris and stonecrop

It was warming up fast as we descended, a stark contrast to the cold wet descent on MacDuff Mountain (post) just four days prior. We had to be careful not to slip on the loose rocks in the steeper sections and were again thankful for our trekking poles.

Coralroot

The best view of the Three Sisters that we got all day.

Butterflies enjoying some vetch. There were at least a half dozen butterflies visiting this patch.

Brown creeper

Pink pyrola

Pearly everlasting

Turkey vulture

Fireweed

Entering the trees near the footbridge over Deception Creek.

Columbine

Tiger lilies

This was a challenging but nice hike. We only saw one other person all day, a trail runner, before reaching the footbridge in the morning. In addition to some poison oak along parts of the trail we did flick a total of three ticks off our clothing so that is something to be aware of. Our GPS track showed approximately 9.5 miles which is partially inflated by my wandering back and forth a bit at the summit.

While it’s not the most exciting hike you can find, there were enough views and variety of plants and wildlife to keep things interesting and the elevation gain made it a good training hike. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Buckhead Nature Trail and Deception Butte

Tags Buckhead Nature Trail. Lower Deception Butte Trailhead, Deception Butte, Deception Butte Trail, Deception Creek, hiking, oakridge, Oregon, wildflowers, Willamette National Forest

Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

MacDuff Mountain – 06/15/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 17, 2024
2 Comments on MacDuff Mountain – 06/15/2024

Seemingly all of the upcoming hikes I have slated for June (this year and in the future) involve viewpoints, but after a week of mostly blue skies and warm weather rain showers arrived just in time for our day off. Our original plan had been a two-stop day near McKeznie Bridge, first to revisit Castle Rock where we’d missed the view in 2017 (post) due to clouds, then hike to MacDuff Mountain for the first time. When I checked Friday morning the forecast for this area called for a 60% chance of showers mainly before 11am, less than a tenth of an inch of precipitation, and partly sunny skies. I checked some other areas and unless we were willing to drive to Central Oregon none looked better than this.

We decided to save Castle Rock for another (sunnier) day and drove straight to the O’Leary/Castle Rock Trailhead.

The hike to MacDuff Mountain was brought to our attention by Hike Oregon who is a great resource for hiking and backpacking information and tips. The O’Leary Mountain Trail passes just below the rocky summit of MacDuff Mountain on its way to joining the 22.8-mile long Olallie Trail. This trail and a portion of the Olallie Trail are open to mountain bikes as well as hiking. The out-and-back to MacDuff Mountain is approximately 10.5 miles with over 2700′ of elevation gain. The well graded trail makes the climb feel like less than that number though.

From the trailhead we crossed FR 411 to a pointer for the Castle Rock and O’Leary Trails.

We quickly arrived at a junction where the Castle Rock Trail headed left.

From this junction it is approximately 5 miles to the summit of Castle Rock. We wouldn’t have gone that route even if we had stuck to the original plan to visit it first. We would have parked at the Castle Rock Trailhead which is only 1.2-miles from that peak’s summit.

We stayed straight on the O’Leary Trail and quickly became soaked by the damp vegetation along the trail.

There were some nice rhododendron blooms along the trail.

It was hard to tell if it was actually raining or if the low clouds/fog was just leaving the trees and plants damp but either way drops were falling from overhead as we climbed a series of switchbacks. These led us past some nice rock formations in the first mile and a half.

Spotted coralroot

The first of three crossings of FR 411, this is at the 0.4-mile mark.

Inside-out flower

Starflower

Yellowleaf iris

The trail is narrow at times but well maintiained.

Forest filled with rhododendron.

A closer look at the rhodies.

There were several madrones in the forest.

Little prince’s pine

Sugar sticks

There were a few places where we might have had a view if not for the clouds.

Stonecrop

Passing below some of the rock formations.

Anemones

Bleeding heart

The switchbacks became much rarer beyond the rock formations as the trail traversed the hillside below a ridgeline, and occasionally on the ridge.

The first small meadow that the trail passed through was full of blue-eyed Mary.

Northern phlox

Coming up on another small meadow.

Subalpine mariposa lily

Beargrass

A little under three miles from the trailhead the trail arrived at FR 411 for the second time.

We were briefly confused here because the Forest Service map showed the trail continuing straight across the road here, and the description from Hike Oregon was that you would cross the road here. There was no sign of the trail to be seen though. We wandered back and forth a bit then based on the topography decided that any continuation of the trail would be further up the road (to the right when arriving at the road). We walked approximately 100 yards to spot the continuation of the trail through the fog.
The fog didn’t help with our trying to find the trail. There was enough room along this section of road that parking and starting the hike from here would be possible.

Back on trail.

The trail made one of its steepest climbs from the road here then after briefly leveling out dropped back down to the road again.
Honeysuckle

More northern phlox

This meadow was full of bluehead gilia.

The trail dropped steeply as it rejoined FR 411.

Another brief road walk followed before the trail split off to the right at a pointer.
There was no parking room that we could see near this area.

It was only about a quarter of a mile between the two road crossings and the steep up and down had us questioning if it wouldn’t have been better just to stay on the road, but then we’d have missed the meadow of bluehead gilia.

The trail continued its gradual but steady climb for two more miles before arriving below the rocky summit of MacDuff Mountain.
Vanilla leaf along the trail.

Bunchberry

Trillium

We stopped when we spotted something in the trail ahead that looked like it might be an animal. Using the camera to zoom we realized it was a grouse hen with her little chicks.

The hen got up and then the chicks headed into the underbrush. We felt bad having disturbed them, but once they’d moved, we calmly passed by while momma came back to gather her little ones.

This was all beargrass, but none of the plants in this area appeared to be planning on blooming this year.

Hermit thrush

The rocky summit of MacDuff Mountain.

Our hopes that the clouds might break up or lift before our arrival at MacDuff Mountain were in vain. It was a little past 11am but partly sunny skies were a distant dream. While there wouldn’t be any mountain views today the wildflowers blooming on the rocks made for a worthy destination on their own.
A lot of larkspur.

Subalpine mariposa lilies

Paintbrush and buckwheat

Cinquefoil

A penstemon

Before going up to the actual summit I passed beneath and back into the forest following the trail until it began to descend.

There is no trail to the summit, so I went up cross country along the forest border then across to a 1931 memorial plaque at the top.

The view from the top.

No blue sky that way.

No sign of clearing this way either.

Cliff beardtongue

Woodland-stars

Paintbrush

We didn’t stay at the summit long. There was a slight breeze and that combined with the damp conditions made things chilly. We were not as prepared for the chilly conditions as we probably should have been, but even after 14 years of hiking we occasionally do dumb stuff. We headed back down and along the way encountered the only other person we’d see all day, another hiker making good time going uphill. We got even wetter when an actual rain shower passed over (it was chunky rain and we both thought there might have been a little snow mixed in) before finally got to see at least a little blue sky.

Hey look, there is another ridge over there.

Ookow just starting to open up.

Steep climb or road walk? We chose the trail again on the way back.

A wetter road now thanks to the rain shower.

Blue sky, it does exist.

The clouds got a late start but eventually started lifting.

From this angle it looks like a statue.

Looking down from some of the switchbacks.

Cougar Reservoir

Pyrola

Sunlight!

Both of our GPS units experienced technical difficulties. Mine randomly decided I was going a different direction that wound up putting us almost 7 miles north of our actual position, and Heather’s track couldn’t be imported to Basecamp. From what I could piece together the hike was approximately 11.2 miles but would have been closer to 10.5 had I not gone past the summit.
I’ve never seen a track this far off.

The track after manually editing it.

Despite the lack of views and not being prepared for it to be quite that chilly this was a good hike. The trail was in great condition with nice forest and wildflowers throughout. It may be a busier trail on nicer weekend days, but it didn’t appear that it sees a lot of usage regardless. Happy Trails!

Flickr: MacDuff Mountain

Tags Castle Rock Trail, cougar reservoir, Hike Oregon, hiking, MacDuff Mountain, O'Leary Mountain Trail, O'Leary Trail Complex, Oregon, wildflowers, Willamette National Forest

Coastal Range Hiking Oregon Trip report

Kilchis Falls, South Triangulation Point, and Cedar Butte – 06/08/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 10, 2024
1 Comment on Kilchis Falls, South Triangulation Point, and Cedar Butte – 06/08/2024

We’re continually looking for hikes that are new to us which led us to a pair of such hikes in the Tillamook State Forest. William L. Sullivan includes the 1.6-mile round trip to a former lookout site in Cedar Butte as an additional, non-featured hike in his “100 Hikes Oregon Coast” guidebook. A hike that short didn’t warrant the 2hr drive from Salem, so I took a look at the Oregonhikers.org field guide for other nearby hikes. That research revealed the Triangulation Point Loop. The field guide entry mentioned that the loop could be started from a saddle on the north side of Cedar Butte which was just over a mile from the Cedar Butte Trailhead.

We decided to start with the long loop first. We drove up the steep, narrow Cedar Butte Road past the Cedar Butte Trailhead and parked at the saddle overlooking a clearcut.
From the saddle South Triangulation Point, the highpoint of the loop, is to the right.

We would be doing the loop clockwise to avoid ending the loop with a climb back up to up to the saddle. We headed down Kilchis Forest Road which wound down through the clearcut before entering the forest.

The roadside was lined with wildflowers which we focused on over the missing trees.
Bleeding heart

Fairy lanterns

Solomonseal

Inside-out flower

Paintbrush

Lupine

Starflower

Salmonberry

Cardwell’s penstemon

Beargrass

Wallflower

Little-leaf montia

Fringecup

Salal

Rosy bird’s-foot trefoil

Band-tailed pigeons

Looking back at the saddle before heading into the trees.

Vetch

Leaving the clearcut.

The road leveled out in the forest making for a pleasant walk. Two miles from the saddle we arrived at 100′ Kilchis Falls.

Rock cliffs marking the location of Kilchis Falls.

Located on a tributary of the North Fork Kilchis River the falls reportedly seldom have much flow, but there was enough water today to make for a pretty sight.

The small pool below the falls.

Avens

Spider hiding on a columbine.

Scouler’s corydalis

Youth-on-age

Valerian

After a relaxing break at the falls, we continued along Kilchis Forest Road which approached the North Fork Kichis River and then followed it NW.

Hedgenettle

Waterfall on an unnamed creek. It was quite a way back in thick vegetation.

The above waterfall sans zoom.

Buttercup

Fick Creek joining the river.

Potholes on the North Fork Kilchis River.

Triangulation Creek flowing into the river.

Approximately two miles from Kilchis Falls we crossed the river on a bridge.

We continued to follow the river for another 0.6-miles where Middle Road joined steeply from the right.

Snail shadow on a iris.

Middle Road coming downhill on the right. This is the Middle Road Trailhead mentioned in the Oregonhikers.org field guide.

We made a sharp right turn here and began the difficult climb to South Triangulation Point.

Middle Road isn’t really a road anymore and is only suitable for high clearance 4wd vehicles or OHVs. We huffed and puffed up this track passing a road on the left after 1.3 miles and arriving at a saddle in another 0.3 miles.

A very blurry picture of a doe that was way down the hillside in the forest.

Large rock and log in the middle of Middle Road.

Monkeyflower surrounded by candyflower

Paintbrush on some cliffs above Middle Road.

Thistle

The road at the 1.3-mile mark along Middle Road.

The saddle at the 1.6-mile mark.

Memorial at the saddle.

We took a break at the saddle before continuing the climb. We passed another road on the left approximately half a mile from the saddle then came to 4-way junction 0.6 miles later.
Middle Road continuing on from the saddle.

Beargrass

The road on the left at the 2.1-mile mark.

Iris

Stream flowing down the road.

Coming up to the 4-way junction.

From the junction we took the righthand fork signed “FB3”.
Middle Road from the 4-way junction.

The two lefthand forks at the 4-way junction.

FB3

The elevation at the 4-way junction is about 2600′ and the Middle Road Trailhead is just over 800′ so we’d gained over 1800′ on Middle Road. South Triangulation Point tops out at 3255′ meaning we were still over 650′ below its summit so neither of us were pleased when FB3 proceeded to lose approximately 100′ of elevation in the first 0.6 miles.

Monkeyflower

Beargrass, paintbrush and penstemon

More flowers on a rocky outcrop along FB3.

A bunch of monkeyflowers.

When the road finally started climbing again it was more gradual than Middle Road had been. In 3/4 of a mile, we gained 350′ before coming to a fork.
Springs along the road.

Snake cooling off in the mud.

The snake didn’t budge as we passed around it.

This fork is approximately 4.2 miles from the Middle Road Trailhead.

At the fork we veered uphill to the left. This road gained nearly another 300′ in half a mile where it arrived at a saddle between Triangulation Point and South Triangulation Point.
Snake number two on the day.

This one didn’t budge either.

Switchback below the saddle.

Approaching the saddle.

Gated road up Triangulation Point.

South Triangulation Point

The wildflower display at the saddle was impressive and we spent some time admiring the blooms.
Serviceberry, paintbrush, yarrow, and iris.

Paintbrush and Cardwell’s penstemon

Iris

Broadleaf arnica, paintbrush and penstemon

Columbine among others.

Broadleaf arnica

Aside from a vehicle that was just leaving the saddle below Cedar Butte when we’d arrived that morning we hadn’t seen anyone all day. That changed at South Triangulation Point as a group of dirt bikes had arrived while we were taking a break at the switchback below the saddle. We took a left fork in the road and made our way to the summit where we briefly spoke with them.
Final pitch to the summit.

We could see our car parked at the saddle below Cedar Butte from South Triangulation Point.

Motorcycle track heading down from the summit with Triangulation Point on the other side of the saddle.

Looking to the NW you can see out to the Pacific Ocean. The line of peaks furtherst back staring from left to right consists of Neahkahnie Mountain (post), Angora Peak (post), West Onion & Onion Peaks, Sugarloaf Mountain, and Kidders Butte.

Closer look at Surgarloaf Mountain and Kidder Butte.

Wildflowers on South Triangulation Point.

After a break we headed down the road to the fork where we turned left and quickly began a steep half mile descent to a 5-way junction.

Another nice clump of wild iris.

Lupine

Flowers lining the road.

More motorcycles at the 5-way junction.

We stayed straight at this junction and continued downhill sticking to the main road at all junctions.

Variable-leaf collomia

The road briefly followed a narrow ridge.

Anemones

Moth

Heather spotted this little one. Not sure if it’s a vole, pocket gopher, or something else.

A little over a mile from our car we passed a series of wet cliffs that were putting on a spectacular flower display.

Silverleaf phacelia and chickweed

A lomatium

Larkspur and monkeyflower

This pink larkspur really stood out on the cliffs.

Littleleaf miner’s-lettuce

Several types of yellow wildflowers.

The cliffs helped explain why the road had dipped so far below Kilchis Saddle where our car was. Shortly after passing them the road began a final climb to the saddle gaining close to 200′ in the final three quarters of a mile.
Still dropping a little after the cliffs.

Bleeding heart and candyflower

Climbing the road at the edge of the clearcut.

The saddle where our car was parked across the clearcut.

South Triangulation Point from Cedar Butte Road.

South Triangulation Point

Looking down the North Fork Kilchis River valley from the saddle.

For us this loop came in at 12.7 miles a little over 2700′ of elevation gain. Despite being on roads some of the elevation change was quite steep adding to the difficulty. That being said this was a good hike with a nice waterfall and lots of wildflowers. We encountered about a dozen motorbikes, all between South Triangulation Point and end of the hike and we didn’t hear them all that often either.

It had been a long hard loop, so Heather chose not to add another 780′ climb when we arrived at the Cedar Butte Trailhead.

I on the other hand am a glutton for punishment so I threw my pack back on and walked 250′ up a gravel road to a signboard marking the start of the Cedar Butte Trail.
The trail information lists the hike as “difficult” due to the amount of elevation gained over just three quarters of a mile to the summit.

The start of the Cedar Butte Trail.

The trail began fairly level passing through some heavy brush before breaking into a second growth forest.

Star-flowered false solomonseal

Black-headed grosbeak

False lily of the valley

The trail didn’t really begin to climb until the 0.3-mile mark where it made a series of short switchbacks then alternated between steep straightaways and more switchbacks.
The trail was in good shape with just one small tree down over it.

Blue-eyed Mary

Small saddle below the summit.

Beargrass

Phlox

Final pitch to the summit.

Wild onion

Benches at the former lookout site.

View from the summit.

Wildflowers at the summit.

On the way back down I took a short, steep spur trail to a viewpoint where I could see Kings Mountain (post) to the NE.
Kings Mountain is the high point to the right along the ridge.

After checking out the viewpoint I continued my descent and rejoined Heather at the trailhead.

Fairy bells and vanilla leaf

Almost back

This hike had been 1.6 miles and one heck of a climb. My legs were feeling all 3500′ on the day. Late Spring seems like a good time to visit this area as the wildflowers were the highlight. Kilchis Falls was nice but at different times of the year the flow would likely diminish the appeal quite a bit. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Kilchis Falls, South Triangulation Point, and Cedar Butte

Tags Cedar Butte, Cedar Butte Trail, Cedar Butte Trailhead, FB3, hiking, Kilchis Falls, Kilchis Forest Road, Middle Road, North Fork Kilchis River, Oregon, Oregon Coast Range, South Triangulation Point, Tillamook State Forest, Triangulation Point, wildflowers

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Trip report Willamette Valley

Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge – 05/28/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 1, 2024
4 Comments on Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge – 05/28/2024

I extended my Memorial Day Weekend by taking a vacation day, and what better way to follow up a weekend of hiking than taking another hike. I turned to our nearest wildlife refuge and returned to Baskett Slough for a quick morning hike. This would be my fifth visit (far too few) with the most recent having been last April (post).

I started out at the Baskett Butte Trailhead and hiked up to the Rich Guadagno Observation Platform on Mt. Baldy hoping for a colorful Sunrise.

The best of the color was while I was still at the trailhead.

Checkerbloom

Common madia

Meadow checker-mallow and vetch

The platform

Too late for any color.

From the platform I headed out to the Morgan Lake Loop. There didn’t seem to be many birds around until I got to Moffitti Marsh.
There always seems to a western meadowlark or two on Mt. Baldy.

Spotted towhee

I went left to hike the loop clockwise.

Moffitti Marsh in the distance.

Geese flying over.

Snake in the grass.

Pied-billed grebes

Common yellowthroats

Gadwalls

Moffitti Marsh

Dove

Beyond the marsh the trail follows a fence line along farmland where I spotted a northern harrier. Normally these birds fly off quickly, but the one sat on his post as I slowly got close enough to get some decent zoomed photos.

When he finally flew off I continued to the Smithfield Road Trailhead then continued on the loop toward Morgan Lake.
House finch

Swallow

Sparrow

Crow

Goose family

Common yellow-throat (female)

Roses

Columbine

White-crowned sparrow

Ookow

Tolmie’s mariposa lily

After completing the Morgan Lake Loop I returned to the trailhead by completing the Rich Guadagno Memorial Loop.

Waxwing

After returning to the car I decided to check out a part of the refuge that I hadn’t seen before by driving out Coville Road to a parking area at Cottonwood Pond. It was a quarter to 8am and I wanted to avoid joining the morning rush hour traffic on the highway. It turned out to be a good decision because, as luck would have it, an American Bittern was sitting in grass near the mostly dry pond.

I watched the bittern for a few minutes then hopped back in the car and headed home. This was a 4.9-mile hike with 340′ of elevation gain.
Cottonwood Pond is in the lower left corner.

This was a nice way to end my long weekend leaving me plenty of time to do things like write these trip reports. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Baskett Slough 2024

Tags American Bittern, Baskett Butte, Baskett Butte Trailhead, Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge, Cottonwood Pond, Coville Road, hiking, Morgan Lake, Northern Harrier, Oregon, Rich Guadagno Memorial Loop Trail, Smithfield Road Trailhead

Bend/Redmond Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Crooked River Wetlands – 05/27/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 31, 2024
1 Comment on Crooked River Wetlands – 05/27/2024

To wrap up our Memorial Day Weekend trip to Prineville we visited the Crooked River Wetlands Complex

The wetlands were opened in 2017 as a solution to the city’s wastewater needs. The complex has 5.4-miles of trails, over half of which are paved, that loop around 15 ponds of varying sizes. We were the third car to arrive, however, there were numerous raucous birds.

The yellow-headed blackbirds were particularly noisy.

A cinnamon teal in front of two mallards?

With so many loop possibilities this is a choose your own route area. Ours wound up being primarily on the Outer Loop, but we cut back in toward the parking area between ponds 5 & 1 to make sure we passed all 13 interpretive signboards.
This loop was 3.4-miles.

Grizzly Mountain from Pond 4.

Killdeer

One of the interpretive signboards ahead.

Goose family

There were plenty of benches to enjoy the views from.

Mallards

Cinnamon teal

Must be a green-winged teal but the angle of light made the patch on his head look blue.

We’d never seen so many killdeer in one area.

Spotted sandpipers

Brewer’s blackbird

Swallow

Pollinator garden

Ring-necked ducks

Wilson’s phalarope

Yellow-headed blackbirds

American coot

Adolescent geese

Dove

Gadwalls

Female yellow-headed blackbird

Pair of bucks.

Ruddy ducks

Red-winged blackbird harassing an osprey.

Gray Butte

A pair of hawks.

Not birds.

Marsh wren

Great blue heron

Observation deck at Pond 10.

Another marsh wren.

Heading back to the parking area.

We had a lot of fun watching and listening to the birds here, and it was perfect for a morning walk. The distance allowed us to be on our way back to Salem shortly after 8am which was early enough that we avoided most of the holiday traffic.

After this weekend’s hikes we’re down to a dozen Eastern Oregon featured hikes to complete our quest for 500 (post). Happy Trails!

Flickr: Crooked River Wetlands

Tags birds, Cinnamon Teal, Crooked River Wetlands, Crooked River Wetlands Complex, Ducks, gadwall, geese, hiking, marsh wren, Oregon, Osprey, Prineville, Ruddy Duck, Wilson's Phalarope, Yellow headed blackbird

Blue Mountains - North Hiking Oregon Trip report

Madison Butte and Bull Prairie Lake – 05/26/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 30, 2024
2 Comments on Madison Butte and Bull Prairie Lake – 05/26/2024

**Note the 2024 Monkey Creek Fire burned over the access road to this hike but spared the trails.**

We were spending Memorial Day Weekend in Prineville primarily due to our plan to hike the Madison Butte Trail. This trail was a new featured hike in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes Eastern Oregon” first edition. We had switched to this edition last year after deciding we were not willing to try and drive to Dug Bar in Hells Canyon (post). We were excited for this trail primarily due to the fact that it was located in an area of Oregon that we hadn’t previously hiked in. The trailhead is located in the Umatilla National Forest east of Highway 207 between Heppner and Spray.
Sign for the trailhead along FS21.

We wound up parking along the shoulder instead of driving down the short dirt road to the official trailhead.

This mud and torn up area was why we chose the shoulder instead.

The trail began at a gate and followed an old roadbed steeply uphill.

Arnica near the trailhead.

The forest was a mix of ponderosa pine and juniper with numerous wildflowers.

Broomrape

Larkspur

Death camas

Lomatium and few-flowered pea-vine

Lupine

Woodland star

Oregon sunshine

Violet

McClellan Mountain, Moon Mountain and Fields Peak (post) in the Aldrich Mountains.

Balsamroot

At the 0.8-mile mark we passed a downed trail sign marking the junction with a spur trail to Tupper Butte.

The clearer track to the left leads to Tupper Butte in approximately 0.3-miles. We continued straight on the Madison Butte Trail.

The Strawberry Mountains with Strawberry Mountain (post) on the left and Canyon Mountain (post) on the right.

Shortly after passing the junction the trail entered a mixed forest and passed through a barbed wire fence.

Glacier lily

The fence in the distance.

After passing the fence the trail began a series of ups and downs as it followed a wide ridge. The first descent was long and steep as the trail dropped to the first of three saddles.

Huckleberry

Mt. Hood

Old man’s whiskers

Ball-head waterleaf

Small bluebells

Paintbrush

Trail marker on the tree.

One of two fresh piles of scat along the trail.

The markers were helpful because the trail was quite faint at times.

Slender phlox

Shooting stars

Rock outcrop along the trail at the 2.1-mile mark.

View from the rock outcrop.

Larches

Chocolate lily

Lance-leaf spring beauty

Violets

Madison Butte from the trail.

Just over 2.5-miles from the trailhead we arrived at Bottle Spring.

Bottle Spring

Pond below the spring.

Glacier lilies

A short climb from the spring brought us to Madison Butte Road.

Trail sign at Madison Butte Road.

We turned right on the road and followed it uphill for a mile to the Madison Butte Lookout.

Blue-eyed Mary

The Copple Butte Trail joining from the right.

Mt. Jefferson poking up in the distance.

Wild onions

There were a bunch of grass widows blooming below the lookout.

Access to the lookout platform was locked but I was able to climb most of the way up to enjoy the views.
The Strawberry and Aldrich Mountains to the south.

The Elkhorns (post) beneath the clouds.

The Elkhorns with Mt. Ireland (post) the high point on the right.

Looking SW we could see Mt. Jefferson and also make out the Three Sisters further to the south. Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams were also visible although partially obscured by clouds.

We took a nice long break at the summit and explored a bit before heading back.

A rockcress

On the way down the road the butterflies were out, and we spotted a yellow-bell lily that we’d missed on the way up.
Swallowtail

Milbert’s tortoiseshell

Skipper

As we neared the Madison Butte Trail we spotted a pair of hikers at Bottle Spring. I remarked to Heather that it would be funny if it were Cheryl and Greg, a pair of fellow adventurers. Cheryl is currently working on a book on Oregon’s lookouts, and we’d run into her last year on our hike to the Sand Mountain Lookout (post). That wasn’t the first time we’d crossed paths though. We had also run into her near Table Lake (post) in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness in 2018 and in Jefferson Park a couple of years before that. As we neared the other hikers we realized it was in fact them. It turned out that they had discussed how funny it would be if they knew the people that owned the other car at the trailhead. We had a nice talk and learned that she was down to just 35 publicly accessible lookouts (out of over 150) to visit before heading our separate ways.

It was a quite hike down to the trailhead with Cheryl and Greg being the only other people we’d see here all day.
Mushroom

Fairy slipper

A particularly large paintbrush.

Orange tip

Larkspur

This came in at 8.5-miles with 2540′ of elevation gain.

We had a second stop planned for the day at Bull Prairie Lake which was just three paved miles off of Highway 207. A 1.2-mile trail loops around the man-made lake which sports a large campground and day use picnic area.

We’d brought a sandwich and chips to have for lunch at the picnic area before taking the leisurely stroll around the lake.

Violets

Ring-necked ducks and an American coot

Arnica

Ducklings

Ring-necked duck

Fleabane?

Camas

A coot and a sandpiper

Red-winged blackbird

Our first eared grebe.

After completing the loop we drove back to Prineville and after the long day were looking for something on the quicker side for dinner so we tried The Dawg House. This turned out to be a good choice as the sausages and onion rings were a perfect post hike meal. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Madison Butte and Bull Prairie Lake

Tags Bull Prairie Lake, Bull Prairie Lake Campground, hiking, Madison Butte, Madison Butte Lookout, Madison Butte Trail, milbert's tortoiseshell, Oregon, The Dawg House, Umatilla National Forest, wildflowers

Central Oregon Hiking Ochoco Mountains Oregon Trip report

Willow Creek Trail, Juniper Hills, and Barnes Butte – 05/25/24

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 29, 2024
5 Comments on Willow Creek Trail, Juniper Hills, and Barnes Butte – 05/25/24

**Note the 2024 Elk Lane Fire burned a small portion of the Willow Creek Trail near where we turned around.**

Our primary hiking goal for 2024 is to finally finish our quest to hike at least part of all 100 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes” guidebooks (post). Sullivan separates Oregon into five regions: Oregon Coast, NW Oregon, Central Cascades, Southern Oregon, and Eastern Oregon. We’ve focused on one specific edition for each region and have now managed to finish all but an Eastern Oregon edition. We had been focused on the third edition of his “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” but switched to his first edition “100 Hikes Eastern Oregon” last year after deciding we weren’t willing to attempt the drive to Dug Bar in Hells Canyon (post). Sullivan had removed Dug Bar from the featured hikes along with six other hikes which we had already completed. (Note that we went from a 3rd to a 1st edition. This is due to Sullivan dropping “Travel Guide” from his book’s titles even though they still contain lots of helpful travel information.)

Four of the new featured hikes were in, or near, Central Oregon. More specifically the Prineville area, so we decided to book a room there for Memorial Day Weekend. One of these new featured hikes posed a problem though. New hike 18 – Juniper Hills is on land owned by The Nature Conservancy and at some point, after the book was published, public access to the area was closed. An email prior to us leaving confirmed the closure which left us without a way to legally do the hike. We weighed our options, reverting to the previous edition and daring the drive to Dug Bar, or driving to Juniper Hills and taking pictures from the would-be trailheads. We decided on the latter with hopes that someday public access may be restored, possibly by permit and/or reservations.

We had originally planned on doing two of the featured hikes on Saturday before checking into our room, Willow Creek and Juniper Hills. With hiking being out at Juniper Hills we added a third stop to the day to check out Barnes Butte in Prineville. Our first stop was in Madras, OR at the Willow Creek Trailhead which wound up being one of the sketchiest trailheads we’ve been to.

There was a large homeless camp along Willow Creek beyond the large gravel parking area and several people just mulling about with no other cars around. According to recent news reports the city will be removing the camp on or around June 11th. We decided to go ahead and chance leaving the car rather than trying to find a different starting point based off of the city maps online. We crossed the creek on a footbridge and followed the paved trail just over half a mile to a fork above SW Canyon Road. We forked left and descended to a crosswalk then began climbing “M Hill”.

M Hill from the trail.

The crosswalk on SW Canyon Road.

Kiosk at the bottom of the hill.

The trail climbed for a half mile to the identifier.

The “M” on the side of the hill.

It was a little cloudy on top, but we could make out several snowy cascades and most of the lower peaks to the SE.
<Gray Butte (post), Haystack Butte, and Juniper Butte to the left. Broken Top and the Three Sisters are the snow-covered peaks to the right.

Broken Top and the Three Sisters to the left with Mt. Jefferson to the right.

Broken Top and the Three Sisters

Mt. Jefferson

After taking in the view we returned to the fork and took a left to head into the Willow Creek Canyon. The trail made a quick climb then dropped to another crossing of SW Canyon Road.
Ash-throated flycatcher

On the far side of the road the trail became gravel before giving way to dirt.

Passing under a trestle and a siphon pipe.

We continued approximately 2.5-miles after crossing the road turning around at a junction with the former Willow Creek Road. The scenery was great in the canyon with lots of flowers and birds and we didn’t see any snakes.

Lupin

A lomatium

Ringlet

Ground squirrel

Marmot

Crossing the dry bed of Willow Creek.

Fiddleneck

Hawk

Desert yellow fleabane

Small cascade flowing into Willow Creek.

cut-leaf thelypody

Carey’s balsamroot

Rocky Mountain iris

Lazuli bunting

Taper-tip onion

Bullock’s oriole near the top of the photo.

Silverleaf phacelia

Paintbrush

Just before reaching the old roadbed we spotted several deer making their way up the hillside.

Our turnaround spot. The deer were watching us from just right of the largest rock outcrop.

We returned the way we came passing only two other hikers before reaching SW Canyon Road.
Yarrow and silverleaf phacelia above Willow Creek.

Rock wren

Raven nest

This appears to be hound’s tongue.

The car windows were all still intact when we got back to the trailhead which we were thankful for. Aside from the trailhead anxiety this was a lovely 7.4-mile hike with around 500′ of elevation gain.

From Madras we drove to Prineville then continued to the Juniper Hills Preserve by taking Highway 380 through Post, Oregon which is near the geographic center of Oregon. We parked along the shoulder of the highway at a “Private Property No Trespassing” sign with a view of Oregon’s other painted hills. (The official Painted Hills (post) are part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.)

After admiring the painted hills we drove back toward Prineville 1.4-miles and pulled off next to another former trailhead at the Preserve.

Since getting out of the car and walking up to the closed gates was all that was possible at this time we are counting this visit toward the 100. If access is ever restored we will be back but for now we’re just happy that some of the painted hills were visible from the highway.

We made the 35-mile drive back to Prineville and headed for the Barnes Butte Trailhead.

The Barnes Butte Recreation Area has been developed by the Central Oregon Trails Alliance and the City of Prineville on city and Bureau of Land Management land.

A paved loop trail begins at the trailhead and connects to numerous other mixed-use trails (open to biking and hiking). I had found a couple of hiking routes online but both the Oregonhikers and AllTrails maps did not include all of the recently developed trails, so we studied the map at the trailhead and came up with our own route.

Our plan was to begin on the Calumet Trail then turn right at a 4-way junction to cross the paved trail and take the Baby Burma Trail up Barnes Butte to The Meadow Trail. From there we would make the side trip to the summit then descend via The Meadow to the Canal Trail. We could take the Canal Trail most of the way back to the trailhead before it would drop us onto the Paved Trail 0.3 of a mile from the trailhead. This would minimize our time on pavement and save our feet for the rest of the weekend’s hikes.

Of course we immediately chose the wrong path and forked left from the signboard on a wide dirt path when we should have gone right on a narrower dirt path. After a tenth of a mile we found ourselves at the canal and had to turn around and take the correct path.
Grizzly Mountain from the wrong path.

Barnes Butte from the Calumet Trail.

The Calumet Trail wound through the grassland for nearly a mile before arriving at the unsigned 4-way junction.

Threadleaf phacelia

Barnes Butte from the 4-way junction.

We turned right and after 0.2-miles crossed the Paved Trail to a Baby Burma sign.

The Baby Burma Trail climbed an old roadbed for half a mile gaining nearly 300′ to a signed junction at a saddle.

Penstemon

Milkvetch

Phlox

Mt. Jefferson beyond Gray Butte.

Rock outcrop below Barnes Butte.

Cinnabar Mine

A skipper and flies on a groundsel.

A sulphur

We turned left onto The Meadow then forked right to climb Barnes Butte. Reaching the summit required scrambling up a couple of rocky slopes where I was forced to use my hands. Heather opted not to follow.
The trail to the summit.

Bench at the summit.

The summit provided a 360-degree view.
L to R: Black Butte (post), Smith Rocks, Gray Butte, Mt. Jefferson, and Grizzly Mountain with Barnes Butte Reservoir below.

Round Mountain to the east (post).

Powell Buttes to the SW with Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top and the Three Sisters beyond.

Mt. Bachelor (post)

Broken Top and the Three Sisters

After taking in the view I descended to where Heather was waiting, and we headed down The Meadow.
Of course by heading down it meant we started with a slight climb on The Meadow.

Viewpoint along The Meadow.

Orange globe-mallow

Buckwheat

When we arrived at a sign for the Canal Trail we turned left on a dirt track following a former ditch.

A hairstreak

The Canal Trail running parallel to the Pave Trail.

Mountain identifier

Coming up on the end of the Canal Trail.

Lizard

Arriving back at the trailhead.

We ended up with an extremely disfigured figure-eight here consisting of 3.9-miles and 550′ of elevation gain.

We were a bit surprised at just how enjoyable the hike at Barnes Butte had been. This is a really nice area and seemed to be quite popular, yet it never felt busy. It had been much more than just a time killer while we waited for check-in time. Speaking of which it was now a little after 3pm so we headed for our motel, got checked in and cleaned up, then headed next door to Club Pioneer where we met up with Heather’s family for a wonderful dinner. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Willow Creek, Juniper Hills, and Barnes Butte

Tags Barnes Butte, Barnes Butte Recreation Area, Central Oregon, Club Pioneer, hiking, Juniper Hills, Juniper Hills Preserve, M Hill, Madras, Oregon, Painted Hills, Prineville, Willow Creek Canyon, Willow Creek Trail, Willow Creek Trailhead