Category: Oregon

McGee Creek Trail to McNeil Point – 08/05/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 7, 2023
1 Comment on McGee Creek Trail to McNeil Point – 08/05/2023

It had been a couple of years since we’d hiked in the Mt. Hood Wilderness so we were due for another visit. There were a few trails that lead to the Timber Line Trail that we hadn’t checked out yet so we chose the McGee Creek Trail and planned on visiting McNeil Point for the third time. The first two visits had been via the Top Spur Trailhead (Post.

We were the second car at the McGee Creek Trailhead

The McGee Creek Trail is a fairly straight trail that climbs gradually a little more than a mile and a half to the Timberline Trail. The trail is completely forested and a bit brushy in places, but it was quiet, we only saw two other hikers on the trail and that was when we were on our way back down.

Registration box and signboard at the Mt. Hood Wilderness boundary.

There were a few downed trees but nothing too difficult to navigate.

The brush was mostly huckleberry bushes.

Trail side snacks.

McGee Creek Trail junction with the Timberline Trail.

We turned left onto the Timberline Trail and followed it for approximately 2.5-miles to the McNeil Point Trail. While the McGee Creek Trail had been quiet the Timberline Trail was an expressway, even early in the morning. There were a lot of wildflowers blooming but the number of people was honestly a bit of a distraction. Add in a lot of garbage (mostly unburied TP) and at least one pair of backpackers camped on a meadow that was clearly marked no camping and it wasn’t the best experience we’ve had on a trail.

Blowdown from the September 2020 storms that also flamed the destructive wildfires across the state. For more information on the storms impact on Mt. Hood check out this Wy’East Blog post.

Looking through the trees at one of the areas that suffered severe blowdown.

It was a cloudy day. We got sprinkled on briefly a couple of times.

Fireweed

Pinedrop

Avalanche lilies

Paintbrush

Valerian, spirea, and paintbrush

Gentians

Yellow monkeyflower

A tributary of McGee Creek.

Spirea along the Timberline Trail.

Shooting star

Pink monkeyflower

Fleabane

Beargrass

False hellebore

Partridge foot

Lupine

Lewis monkeyflower along a tributary of McGee Creek.

Beardstongue

Lousewort

Dry pond surrounded by beargrass.

The idiots camped in the meadow. There is even an arrow on the “Do not camp in meadow” sign pointing at the meadow. Please DON’T be these people.

The second pond still had some water in it.

Junction with the Mazama Trail (post).

The butterflies weren’t out today but the bees were.

The clouds just wouldn’t quite raise enough.

Mountain heather

Lupine and paintbrush

Beargrass along the Timberline Trail.

Paintbrush, partridge foot and lupine

Signpost for the McNeil Point Trail.

We followed the McNeil Point Trail uphill gaining a ridge above a branch of Ladd Creek.

We’d never seen a paint colored like this before.

Western pasque flower

Lupine and two types of monkeyflower

The trail eventually curved away from the ridge traversing a hillside above the headwaters of McGee Creek.

As the trail passed through a talus slope we heard several pikas and it didn’t take long to spot one dashing across the rocks with some greens in its mouth.

Pikas spend the Summer gathering greens for the rest of the year when they remain in their homes under the snows.

We wound up seeing at least three, one of which emerged to say “hi” to Heather.

Mountain heather and paintbrush.

Saxifrage

A variety of flowers.

Avalanche lilies

Sub-alpine fleabane

Western pasque flowers

Doe that was as surprised as we were when we spotted each other.

Lewis monkeyflower

The trail forks at a small plateau out of sight of the McNeil Point Shelter. The right fork is the most direct route to the shelter but we forked left thinking we might head further up the ridge toward the Glisan Glacier like we had done in 2015.
The righthand fork.

View from the plateau.

Some low clouds to the East.

Dwarf lupine

A hiker on the righthand fork headed for the McNeil Point Shelter.

As we approached the ridge a large group of hikers headed up the ridge from the shelter. When we reached the ridge we decided not to follow them up and instead turned downhill to the shelter.

Caves below the Sandy Glacier.

Bluebells of Scotland

The shelter below to the right.

Muddy Fork

Goldenrod

With the clouds the view wouldn’t have been great from the ridge on this day.

It had been approximately 1.5 miles from the Timberline Trail to the shelter. After taking a short break at the shelter we had a choice to make. Retrace our steps or take a steep scramble trail directly below the shelter. On our previous visits we had returned the way we’d come but today we decided to try the scramble route.

It was less than half a mile and approximately 700′ down to the Timberline Trail. The views were good and despite the steepness and a couple of long step downs it wasn’t as bad as we’d pictured.

Patches of blowdown along Bald Mountain Ridge.

Columbine

Valerian

Paintbrush and bistort

Aster

Chipmunk snacking on huckleberries.

Meadow near the Timberline Trail.

Arriving back at the Timberline Trail.

By descending via the scramble route we cut approximately 1.7-miles from the hike and got to see some new scenery. We were a bit surprised by the number of hikers climbing up this way but it probably shouldn’t have been surprising given how busy the mountain was. We turned left on the Timberline Trail and followed it downhill 1.8 busy miles to the McGee Creek.
Every once in awhile the trail was clear of other users.

We’re always drawn to this rock fin above the Muddy Fork.

Canada jay

McGee Creek Trail junction.

We turned right onto the McGee Creek Trail leaving the crowds behind and descended the 1.7-miles to our car.

Bunchberry

Is that sunlight?

While the clouds never lifted from Mt. Hood we did experience a window of blue sky near the end of our hike.

Our hike came in at 9.7 miles with approximately 2700′ feet of elevation gain.

It was a bit of a mixed hike for us. The wildflowers and wildlife were great but the number of other trail users, and some of the resulting trash and lack of etiquette prevented us from fully enjoying the experience. It has been quite a while since we’d been on such a consistently busy hike. That being said the McGee Creek Trail was a nice break from the crowds providing the type of solitude (and lots of berries) that we really enjoy. Happy Trails!

Flickr: McGee Creek Trail to McNeil Point

Tags hiking, McGee Creek, McGee Creek Trailhead, McNeil Point, Mt. Hood National Forest. McGee Creek Trial, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Muddy Fork, Oregon, Pika, scramble route, timberline trail, wildflowers

Crater Lake Area High Cascades Hiking Oregon Trip report

Cleetwood Cove – 08/01/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 6, 2023
3 Comments on Cleetwood Cove – 08/01/2023

For our last morning in Crater Lake National Park we had one final stop planned before heading home. A hike down the Cleetwood Cove Trail to the lakeshore. The 1.1-mile trail is the only one in the park that takes you down to the water which we thought was a fitting way to end our trip.
Sunrise behind Llao Rock on the way to the trailhead.

Crater Lake at sunrise.

Mt. Bailey, Diamond Peak, and Mt. Thielsen behind Red Cone.

Cowhorn Mountain (post), Maiden Peak (post), the Three Sisters, and Mt. Thielsen.

We were the first car at the large parking area along East Rim Drive.

When we’d originally planned it we were going to be taking a boat tour (or at least a shuttle) over to Wizard Island to hike to the top of that cinder cone, but the boat tours weren’t open yet this year.

We crossed East Rim Drive and started down the trail which losses 700′ via a series of switchbacks.
Mt. Scott (post)

Dutton Cliffs, Sun Notch (post), Applegate Peak and Garfield Peak (post)

Looking down at the turnaround point.

Wouldn’t want a rock like this to come down on you.

Breakfast time.

There were “no stopping” signs at areas where the danger of rock fall was the greatest.

One of the tour boats.

Looking back at the dock area.

We took a break at the bottom enjoying the view and watching fish jump while we prepared to make the climb back up.
Couldn’t get an actual fish in a photo but I barely missed this one.

We did visit the lakeshore and touch the water before heading back up.

The dock at Cleetwood Cove.

It was a stiff hike back up to the parking area. We had had the lake to ourselves but were now passing the occasional hiker and fisherman on their way down the trail.
Not a hiker or fisherman.

Llao Rock from East Rim Drive.

We were back at the car before 8am and on our way back to Salem. It had been a wonderful trip. The weather had been good, the skies not too smokey, and the scenery spectacular. It was a bit of a bummer to have missed out on Wizard Island, Lady of the Woods and The Pinnacles trail due to the closures but that just gives us an excuse to return. In fact the closure didn’t impact our ability to check the featured hikes off our to-do list. We have now hiked at least part of 92 out of the 100 Southern Oregon/Northern California hikes with the remaining eight planned for later this year (post). Happy Trails!

Flickr: Cleetwood Cove

Tags Cleetwood Cove, Crater Lake, Crater Lake National Park, Garfield Peak, hiking, Oregon, Wizard island

Crater Lake Area High Cascades Hiking Oregon Trip report

Castle Crest Wildflowers, Garfield Peak, Hillman Peak, Godfrey Glen, & Sinnott Memorial Overlook – 07/31/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 5, 2023
5 Comments on Castle Crest Wildflowers, Garfield Peak, Hillman Peak, Godfrey Glen, & Sinnott Memorial Overlook – 07/31/2023

For our third day in Crater Lake National Park we had another four hikes planned. We continued to try to limit the crowds we would experience so we decided on an order of the short Castle Crest Wildflower Loop first followed by Garfield Peak then a section of the Rim Trail around Hillman Peak and finally the 1-mile Godfrey Glen Loop.

The Castle Crest Wildflower Loop is part of Sullivan’s Park Headquarters featured hike along with the Lady of the Woods Trail. That latter trail was listed as closed while the Park performs renovations on the historic buildings at Park Headquarters. The trails can be connected using a tie trail which we skipped due to the closure.

We hiked the loop counterclockwise. The wildflowers were in good shape and the pink monkeyflower was spectacular.

Bog Orchid

Bistort and monkeyflower

Some sort of orchid?

Yellow monkeyflower

Monkshood

Bistort

Not sure if this is a robin or ?

After the completing the loop we drove up to Rim Village where we parked between the Visitors Center and the Crater Lake Lodge.
Crater Lake Lodge

We followed a paved path along the rim of Crater Lake behind the Lodge to signs for the Garfield Peak Trail.

Garfield Peak from behind the lodge.

The Watchman and Hillman Peak

Golden-mantled ground squirrel with a mouth full.

The trail passed a grassy meadow where a doe and her twin fawns were having breakfast.

The trail climbed steadily occasionally along the rim but more often along the cliffs below Garfield Peak.

Mt. McLoughlin (post) and Union Peak (post) to the south.

Mt. McLoughlin

Union Peak

Paintbrush

Reservoir structure (built 1931).

Mt. Bailey (post) to the left of Llao Rock and Mt. Thielsen to the right.

Mt. Bailey

Deer below the trail.

Western pasque flowers

Arnica

One of several patches of snow at the higher elevations.

Crater Lake Lodge below to the left.

Mt. Scott (post)

Clark’s nutcracker

Buckwheat

Beetle on sub-alpine fleabane.

Yellow-bellied marmot

Bench below the summit of Garfield Peak.

Partridge foot

Applegate Peak to the left and Crater Peak (post) to the right.

Arriving at the summit.

The 360-degree view from the summit was great even with a bit of haze from wildfire smoke.
Mt. Scott above the Phantom Ship.

It was a bit hard to make out but Mt. Shasta was visible to the south.

Cowhorn Mountain (post) to the left of Mt. Thielsen and Howlock Mountain to the right.

Crater Lake from the summit of Garfield Peak.

We were scanning the meadows between Garfield and Applegate Peaks and spotted what we think was a large bull elk bedded down near the tree line.

Blurry photo due to the sheer distance away it was but it looked big.

We had the summit to ourselves, except for a few locals.
Union Peak behind a marmot.

Penstemon

After a nice break at the summit we headed back down passing a few more hikers making their way up.

Painted lady

There were a lot of marmots out.

Paintbrush, phlox and buckwheat.

Stonecrop, paintbrush and pearly everlasting.

The clear blue water of the deepest lake in the United States.

Yellow-rumped warbler

Near where we had seen the doe and fawns earlier I was startled by a doe who popped out of some trees right in front of me.

False hellebore

After returning to the car we drove North on Rim Drive to The Watchman Trailhead. We’d started at this busy trailhead in 2012 when we visited the fire lookout atop The Watchman. Today we would be heading in the opposite direction hiking the Rim Trail around Hillman Peak.
Viewpoint and The Watchman from the trailhead.

Western pasque flowers above Crater Lake.

It was a short, stiff climb to start before the trail began a gradual descent passing behind Hillman Peak.

Hillman Peak ahead.

There were quite a few different colors of paintbrush along the trail.

Lounging on a rock.

Shasta knotweed

Rim Drive below the Rim Trail.

Mt. Bailey and Diamond Peak with Diamond Lake (post) below.

Red Cone with Sawtooth Mountain (post), Cowhorn Mountain, and Mt. Thielsen beyond.

Although barely visible we could make out the South Sister (post) through the haze between Cowhorn Mountain and Mt. Thielsen.

Silvery Raillardella

Snow patch on Hillman Peak.

Penstemon

Llao Rock

It took us a moment to notice the two deer ahead along the tree line.

We spotted the doe but she also had a pair of fawns nearby that bounded off.

This buck had zero concern with us as we passed by.

Phlox

Dwarf lupine

Devil’s Backbone with Mt. Scott behind.

We ended our hike at Devil’s Backbone, an exposed lava dike.
Wizard Island

Devil’s Backbone

Hillman Peak from Devil’s Backbone.

Garfield Peak across Crater Lake.

After a short break we headed back.

Saxifrage

The Watchman

If I stand perfectly still, they won’t see me.

Hillman Peak and Llao Rock from the viewpoint at The Watchman Trailhead.

Rock formations below Hillman Peak.

While the trailhead was packed with cars and people we only passed two others on our 3.7-mile hike to the Devil’s Backbone and back. We hopped back into our car and drove back toward Mazama Village stopping for one more short hike at Godfrey Glen.
Godfrey Glen Trailhead

There were a couple of cars here but nothing like what we’d encountered at The Watchman. The 1-mile loop here passes views of Godfrey Glen and Annie Creek Canyon. Hiking clockwise is the shortest route to the viewpoints but we went the opposite direction to leave ourselves a shorter hike after finishing with the viewpoints.

The ADA accessible trail made for a nice easy walk.

Super-heated volcanic gas fused ash creating these pinnacles.

First viewpoint of Godfrey Glen above Munson Creek.

Godfrey Glen

Another viewpoint.

We could hear Munson Creek but it wasn’t visible in the canyon below.

Near the last viewpoint we could see just a bit of some falls on Munson Creek.

One waterfall.

Another waterfall in the canyon.

The end of the loop.

After finishing our hikes we returned to our cabin, showered, and changed then picked up a pizza from the Annie Creek Restaurant and took it back up to Rim Village. We hoped to visit the museum at the Visitor’s Center after eating some lunch but unfortunately it was closed. Instead we took the short paved path near the Center to the Sinnott Memorial Overlook.

We’d seen the overlook from the Garfield Peak Trail that morning.
Sinnott Memorial Overlook on the rim to the left.

View from the overlook.

Mt. Scott and Garfield Peak from the overlook.

The overlook contained a number of informational signs including this one about the amount of water in the lake.
These numbers blew our minds.

After reading all the signs in the overlook we climbed back up to Rim Village and made our way through the masses of tourists. We quickly decided that the crowds weren’t for us and retreated to the car and headed back toward our cabin. We did stop once more, at Park Headquarters since that was where the Lady of the Woods hike would have taken place if not for the construction.

Swallowtail and a painted lady on penstemon.

Our day, including the walk down to the overlook came to 9.7 miles and a little under 1500′ of elevation gain. The majority of the elevation gain came from the Garfield Peak hike (just over 1000′) and it was also our longest at 3.8-miles roundtrip. The hike around Hillman Peak was 3.7-miles but only 250′ of elevation gain while Godfrey Glen only gained 100′. The wildflower hike at Castle Crest was approximately a half mile with just 70′ of elevation gain and the short path to Sinnott Memorial Overlook was about a third of a mile roundtrip requiring around 150′ climb back up to the rim.

It had been a great day of hiking and the pizza was surprisingly good. We did however come to the conclusion that we just aren’t good tourists. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Crater Lake Day 3

Tags Castle Crest Wildflowers, Crater Lake, Crater Lake Lodge, Crater Lake National Park, deer, Devil's Backbone, Garfield Peak, Godfry Glen, hiking, Hillman Peak, marmot, Mazama Village, Munson Creek, Oregon, Rim Village, the watchman, wildflowers

Crater Lake Area High Cascades Hiking Oregon Trip report

Plaikni Falls, Sun Notch, Crater Peak, Vidae Falls, and Annie Creek – 07/30/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 4, 2023
7 Comments on Plaikni Falls, Sun Notch, Crater Peak, Vidae Falls, and Annie Creek – 07/30/2023

After the difficult hike to Stuart and Red Blanket Falls (post) we had a three-stop day planned starting with Plaikni Falls. Plaikni Falls was one of two hikes included in Sullivan’s featured hike along with The Pinnacles Trail. Unfortunately Pinnacles Road was under construction and closed to any entry beyond the Plaikni Falls Trailhead.

While it was a bummer about the closure our criteria for checking off a featured hike has been hiking (or attempting) to hike just one of the options Sullivan lists in his featured hikes (post) meaning Plaikni Falls would satisfy our criteria.

We set off on the mile long ADA accessible trail just after 6:15am.

There were pikas out there in the rocks but we only heard them this time.

We did spot this western tanager though.

Pink monkeyflowers. One of our favorite wildflowers.

The trail climbed gradually along Sand Creek before rounding a corner to a view of Plaikni Falls.

Paintbrush and columbine along with lupine and groundsel.

Hummingbird visiting a paintbrush.

Monkshood

Yellow monkeyflower

We began here hoping to avoid any crowds and it worked. We were the only ones on the trail and had the falls to ourselves. The first person we saw was just getting ready to exit their car at the trailhead as we finished our hike.

We got back in our car and drove to the Sun Notch Trailhead.

Applegate Peak from the Sun Notch Trailhead.

From the parking area we hiked up the trail 0.2 to the start of a 0.6-mile loop which we hiked counter-clockwise.

There is a nice green meadow in the center of the loop.

The loop briefly follows the rim of Crater Lake passing several nice viewpoints.

The Phantom Ship.

Diamond Peak (post), Sawtooth Mountain (post), and Mt. Thielsen (post).

The Watchman (post) and Hillman Peak with Wizard Island below. Llao Rock in the center and Mt. Thielsen to the right.

Garfield Peak, The Watchman, and Hillman Peak.

Heading back down to the start of the loop.

Marmot

After completing the loop here we drove back toward Rim Village along East Rim Drive 1.4 miles to the Vidae Falls Picnic Area and parked in front of a signboard for the Crater Peak Trail.

The Crater Peak Trail travels 3.2-miles through the forest climbing to the rim of the peak’s crater. A 0.4-mile loop around the crater is possible on an unofficial but well-established path.

Vidae Creek

The first 0.6-miles paralleled East Rim Drive before turning South along a broad ridge toward Crater Peak.
East Rim Drive was up above the trail.

Crater Peak through the trees on the left.

Paintbrush

Stonecrop

Setting off on the broad ridge.

The trail was in need of a little maintenance as there were several larger trees down along the ridge.

There was a very short steep climb to reach this small meadow with a view ahead to Crater Peak.

Female western tanager

Near the 2.5-mile mark we arrived at the base of Crater Peak where the trail suddenly steepened as it began its climb.

Looking up Crater Peak.

Little prince’s pine

Views opened up as we climbed.
Union Peak (post)

Mt. McLoughlin (post) to the South.

Mt. McLoughlin behind Lee & Devil’s Peaks.

Mt. Shasta was visible, barely, through wildfire smoke.

Arriving at the crater.

We took a short break on a log to catch our breath after the climb then hiked clockwise around the crater gaining views of the peaks around Crater Lake.
Scarlet gilia lining the trail around the crater.

The Watchman to the left and Garfield Peak.

Applegate Peak and Mt. Thielsen

View south to Mt. McLoughlin with the Goose Nest to the closer to the right.

Dutton Cliffs and Mt. Scott (post)

Pussytoes

The peaks around Crater Lake.

Paintbrush

Western pasque flowers

Klamath Basin with haze from (most likely) the Golden Fire near Bonanza.

The Rabbitt Ears and Hershberger Mountain (post) along the Rogue-Umpqua Divide.

After completing the loop we headed back to the trailhead where we were stopped by a couple looking for Vidae Falls. Those falls are located along East Rim Drive, not near the picnic area so we let them know where to find the roadside pullout and then followed them to the small parking area.

It was well worth the quick stop before heading back to our cabin at Mazama Village. We had completed our hikes just after Noon and had plenty of day left so we decided to make the 30-minute drive to Union Creek and have a late lunch/early dinner at Beckie’s Cafe.

Beckie’s was busy but the food was great as usual. We each got a slice of pie to go for desert later and returned to Mazama Village. It was still pretty early so I was doing some research on our remaining hikes for our trip. Looking at the Park website I had noticed that in addition to The Pinnacles Trail two additional trails we were hoping to hike were listed as closed, Lady of the Woods and Annie Creek. Again these were both one of two featured hike options so they wouldn’t affect our ability to check off the featured hikes, but it would be a bummer to miss them nonetheless. I then looked at All Trails and saw that there were very recent trip reports from Annie Creek.

That trailhead was located next to the store in Mazama Village so after eating our pie we decided to make an evening hike out of it to see if the trail was indeed open.

We followed an unsigned path from the store/restaurant parking lot to a signed junction where we turned right.

The trail passed between Annie Creek Canyon and the Mazama Campground. We passed a junction where a 1.7-mile loop began/ends that would take us down to Annie Creek.

Signboard at the loop.

We stayed up and hiked the loop counterclockwise.
Crater Peak from the trail.

Ash pinnacles

Getting ready to drop into the canyon.

The trail had been closed for hazard tree removal and we could see that there had been some big trees that had to be cleared.

Wildflowers in the meadows below.

Annie Creek

The trail crossed Annie Creek a couple of times on footbridges before climbing steeply back up to campground.

Monkeyflower and lupine

Final pitch to end the loop.

The Annie Creek Restaurant.

Unsurprisingly this had been the busiest hike of the day. After seeing no one on the Plaikni Falls and Sun Notch Trails we’d seen just four other hikers (2 pairs) on the Crater Peak Trail. Our total mileage for the day came in at 12.3 miles (2.2, 0.9, 6.8, and 2.4 miles respectively). Total elevation gain was 1525′ with over a thousand of that coming from the Crater Peak hike. Annie Creek and Plaikni Falls were each 200′ and Sun Notch a little over 100′.

Plaikni Falls, Sun Notch and Crater Peak tracks

It was a great day of hiking and having a piece of pie from Beckie’s Cafe was the cherry on top. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Plaikni Falls, Sun Notch, Crater Peak, & Annie Creek

Tags Annie Creek, Annie Creek Canyon, Backie's Cafe, Crater Lake National Park, Crater Peak, Crater Peak Trail, hiking, Mazama Village, Oregon, Phantom Ship, Plaikni Falls, Plaikni Falls Trail., Sun Notch, Vidae Falls, Vidae Falls Picnic Area

Crater Lake Area High Cascades Hiking Oregon Sky Lakes/Mountain Lakes Area Trip report

Stuart and Red Blanket Falls – 07/29/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 3, 2023
1 Comment on Stuart and Red Blanket Falls – 07/29/2023

We spent a long weekend at Crater Lake National Park as we continue our quest to hike all 100 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” (post). Our plans included the six remaining featured hikes in the Park that we had yet to hike, but before we got to those, we set our sights on a former featured hike. Stuart Falls had been a featured hike in Sullivan’s third edition but washouts in 2014/15 had severely impacted the western approach (April 2015 trip report by Van Marmot). The area was further damaged in the 2017 Blanket Creek Fire leaving the only viable approach to the falls from the East starting from the Pumice Flat Trailhead located at the Lodgepole Picnic Area.

It was a 4-hour drive from Salem so we arrived at the picnic area a little after 9am and set off on the Pumice Flat Trail.

The trail promptly crossed Highway 62 and then ran parallel to the highway for approximately a third of a mile before turning away (SW).
Arriving at the highway.

Trail on the far side of Hwy 62.

The Pumice Flat Trail climbed gradually for three miles through unburnt forest to the Pacific Crest Trail.

Clodius parnassian on a pussy paw.

Much of the trail followed an old roadbed.

PCT junction.

Butterfly on the Crater Lake PCT register. While I was working on getting the butterfly photo a northbound thru hiker arrived. He mentioned not having had a shower in 10 days and being really excited to reach Mazama Village and being able to take one.

After a short conversation we turned right onto the PCT for 0.1-miles to the Stuart Falls Trail.

It took us just over three miles to reach Stuart Falls from the PCT. The extensive damage from the 2017 had left the trail hard to follow in some areas. It wasn’t clear how long it had been since the trail had been maintained but even where it was obvious there was plenty of blowdown to navigate.
Older cut logs helped us locate the trail at times.

Union Peak from the trail (post). (The “trail” is not in this photo.)

It took a second to find the tread in this meadow.

Once we found it though it was easy to follow.

Big beetle. There are also three clodius parnassian butterflies behind to the right.

Typical trail conditions. I spent a good deal of time removing limbs from the larger trees and pulled some of the smaller ones off the trail.

Doe below the trail.

More messy trail.

There was one small stand of unburned forest which provided a brief break from the blowdown.

Checkerspot butterfly

Mylitta crescent and a hoary comma on spreading dogbane.

Paintbrush

I believe that is Tom Mountain and Jerry Mountain.

Bald Top to the right.

Skipper

Mt. McLoughlin

Lorquin’s admiral

This was the worst of the obstacles.

We hadn’t seen a blue diamond since before the PCT but near the SW corner of the Park boundary we spotted a couple.

Post ahead marking the boundary. The trail passed through a narrow gap here where the blowdown was heavy.

The trail left the Park and entered the Sky Lakes Wilderness.

We left the trail briefly to visit a viewpoint above Stuart Falls.

We continued downhill leaving the trail again to visit a large campsite near the base of 40′ Stuart Falls.

Arnica below the falls and fireweed above the falls added some nice color to the scene.

One-sided wintergreen

I had been toying with the idea of attempting to reach Red Blanket Falls which was another mile and a half from Stuart Falls. We discussed things while we took a break at the falls and I decided to go ahead and make the attempt despite the poor trail conditions while Heather would stay at Stuart Falls. We left it open that she would start back if she wanted and I would catch up after I turned around, whenever that wound up happening.

I struck off from Stuart Falls on some good tread that quickly disappeared.

Four tenths of a mile from the falls I arrived at a trail sign announcing that the old Red Blanket Trailhead was 4 miles away.

Another former trail forked left here that used to hook up to the Lucky Meadows Trail and eventually the PCT. I stayed right along Red Blanket Creek using it as an anchor point when I lost sight of the trail.

Small falls on Red Blanket Creek.

Pink monkeyflower

I’d lost the trail here but headed for the patch of bright orange wildflowers to see what they were.

It wound up being a spectacular patch of leopard lilies.

A little further along I came across a small patch of Crater Lake Collomia.

A very tough mile from the first trail junction I arrived at a second signed former junction.

The next tenth of a mile was spent fighting through head high fireweed and feeling around on the ground to find footing in the thick vegetation that was hiding copious amounts of blowdown.

I was a bit bloody and bruised by I made it to Red Blanket Falls and was not disappointed.

Red Blanket Falls

View down Red Blanket Creek

A spring fed waterfall along Red Blanket Creek below the falls.

A second and third tier of Red Blanket Falls just below the upper fall. I wasn’t able to get a clearer view of these two drops. I hiked a short distance down the creek but decided the poor trail conditions and loss of elevation weren’t worth going further down the trail with no guarantee of a better view.

The three drops of Red Blanket Falls

One more of Red Blanket Falls.

I headed back to Stuart Falls finding it a little easier to follow the old trail alignment going uphill. This resulted in some different views of the creek.
Another little cascade.

In my excitement to reach Red Blanket Falls I had spent a little more energy than I had intended so when I got back to Stuart Falls I took a short break. Heather had started back but I needed to cool down, put on a fresh pair of socks, and have a snack.

After recovering a bit, I set off on my quest to catch up to Heather. Several times I found myself following tread that we hadn’t been on earlier.
Along this rock outcrop I found switchbacks that I’d missed on the way to the falls.

This might be a black backed woodpecker.

This cairn was new to me as well. At this point I was quite a bit below our track from the morning and I was afraid that I might pass Heather without knowing it if she was sticking to the earlier route.

Hummingbird

Goose egg on the left.

I did wind up catching up with Heather who was also feeling fatigued from the tough trail conditions. We made our way back to the PCT where another brief break was had.

Painted lady

A checkerspot and a copper on sub-alpine fleabane.

Arriving back at the PCT. We again crossed paths with a thru hiker on the way to Mazama Village.

It was nearly all downhill from the PCT but it was three more miles and we were both pretty beat. It was a bit of trudge back to the trailhead made worse by us both running out of water about a mile from the car. We had failed to make use of our filter and refill at Stuart Falls and we paid for it.

Pussypaws

Dwarf lupine

I tried hustling back to the car to retrieve a Gatorade and water to take back up the trail to Heather but she wasn’t far behind. I met her at the Highway with the drinks but it was the thought that counted.

My hike to Red Blanket Falls wound up being 15.9 miles (0.2 was due to taking the drinks back up the trail) and approximately 2000′ of cumulative elevation gain.

For an idea of what the hike was like prior to the fire here is a report by Van Marmot from July 2017.

It was nearly 5:30pm by the time we finished the hike. Luckily we were only about three miles from Mazama Village where we checked into our cabin then grabbed dinner at the Annie Creek Restaurant and some supplies from the small store where a number of PCT thru hikers were hanging out including the two gentlemen we’d seen on the trail. Aside from the two thru hikers the only other person we saw all day was a Park Ranger on the Pumice Flat Trail on our way back to the trailhead.

It was a lot longer and harder day than we’d planned for given we had three more days of hiking lined up, but I was happy that I’d made it to Red Blanket Falls. In the end it was worth the effort. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Stuart and Red Blanket Falls

Tags Crater Lake National Park, hiking, Lodgepole Picnic Area, Mazama Village, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, Pumice Flat Trail, Red Blanket Creek, Red Blanket Falls, Red Blanket Trail, sky lakes wilderness, Stuart Falls, Stuart Falls Trail

Bend/Redmond Central Oregon Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Trip report

Metolius River Backpack – 07/22/23 & 07/23/23

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 26, 2023
No Comments on Metolius River Backpack – 07/22/23 & 07/23/23

Our first couple of planned backpacking trips didn’t happen for one reason or another but we really wanted to get at least one overnight trip in before August. We’d picked up some new gear that we hoped to give a test run before a longer outing we have planned for August.

Recent reports of a heavy mosquito presence at our plan “A” location forced us to look for a plan “B”. We turned to one of the early trips that hadn’t happened, a hike along the Metolius River starting from the Lower Bridge Campground. Matt Reeder describes 10.1-mile hike to a former trailhead that once served the Shut-In Trail in his “101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region”. By all accounts the Shut-In Trail was a brushy mess, at least beyond a mile from the former trailhead. Our plan was to set up camp at the old trailhead and then explore the Shut-In Trail as far as it was passable.

Reeder mentioned that ticks could be a nuisance in the Spring but by this time they and most of the mosquito’s wouldn’t be a problem. The downside of visiting this time of year though would be the heat with highs forecast in the upper 80s. The temperature was pleasant when we arrived at the trailhead just after 7am. We parked at a small trailhead across from the Lower Bend Campground.

We’d hiked through this trailhead during a 2012 hike starting from the West Metolius Trailhead (post). Lower Bridge which we’d used to cross the river had been the northern end of that hike. For this trip we would be heading further North and then East as we rounded Green Ridge (post) at the Horn of the Metolius.

To reach the trail we had to walk through the campground to the top of its loop and pass between a couple of occupied camp sites to a trail sign.

The sign is visible from the campground road.

The trail quickly reached the banks of the Metolius. This 23-mile river is fed primarily by a series springs and spring fed creeks beginning with the Head of the Metolius (post). The river ends at Lake Billy Chinook (post) where it joins waters from the Crooked and Deschutes Rivers. The spring fed water is cold and clear which makes the Metolius a beautiful river.

The trail passes a number of large campsites early on with numerous side trails for fly fishers to access the river. Reeder mentioned the trail petering out just over a mile and a half from the campground across the river from the Candle Creek Campground and recommended veering away from the river there and joining the Lower Metolius River Road.

Common mergansers

Ouzel

Goldenrod

Passing some of the campsites.

The Candle Creek Campground across the Metolius.

The trail seemed to be in pretty good shape as we passed the campground so instead of detouring to the road we stuck to the trail which was now more of a braided fisherman’s trail than a hiker trail, but it was passable without too much effort. That is until the final 100′ where we nearly lost the trail in brush before finding a very steep trail leading up to the road.

We actually went left below the stump here but, on the way back wound up coming downhill by the stump.

More campsites.

As we got further from the campground we encountered more and more brushy sections.

Another section with an increased number of obstacles.

Getting a bit brushier.

We left the river for the road at this bend.

Heading up to the road.

The use trail from the road.

Several opportunities to head for the road prior to this had us deciding that we would look for one of those on the way back instead of returning exactly the way we came. We followed this road a total of 6.2 miles to where the GPS showed the road ending and the Shut-In Trail beginning. We actually were passed by a gentleman in an SUV who was heading for one a small number of private cabins located approximately 3.7 miles from where we’d joined the road. He stopped to ask where we were headed and wished us a good hike.

We wondered what this post signified.

They were way past blooming but there were several mountain lady slippers along the road.

Osprey nest

Rock spire on lower section of Green Ridge. There are several interesting rock features higher up on the northern end of Green Ridge that were not visible from the road.

Orchid

Scarlet gilia

Some of the private cabins from the road.

A couple more cabins.

Based on the Oregonhikers field guide we had expected the road beyond the private cabins to have downed trees but instead found they had all been cut and there were even tire tracks, bicycle most likely, all the way to the Shut-In Trail.
The end of the private land.

The clear water allows for nice views of the rocks making up the riverbed.

Even though it had received maintenance the road was not in good enough condition for larger vehicles.

Pink monkeyflower

Lorquin’s admiral

The forest opened up near the end of the road where we set up camp.

Campsite

Yellow monkeyflower

We had arrived at our campsite a little before 12:15pm and it was really heating up, so we broke out our camp chairs and rested for several hours near the river before fixing an early dinner and setting off on the Shut-In Trail.
Lizard hanging out near the campsite.

After an early dinner we set off on the Shut-In Trail which we were surprised to find had seen some recent maintenance.

Grouse

The answer to the questions is yes bears do.

The Metolius through the trees.

Sagebrush mariposa lily. There also tire tracks in the trail behind.

Recent brushing had been performed through this area.

Looking up the end of Green Ridge.

This large tree had been cut fairly recently.

Flagging marking a reroute around a downed tree.

After a little more than a mile and a half of good trail things began to deteriorate.
Starting to get brushy.

View across the river to the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

Flowers along the Metolius.

The Whitewater River was behind the rock formation on the far side. The Whitewater River begins at the Whitewater Glacier on Mt. Jefferson and flows roughly 7.5 miles through the Warm Springs Reservation to the Metolius.

More clear water.

Fireweed

Thimbleberries provided us with a few after dinner snacks.

Hedgenettle

The Shut-In Trail traveled right along the riverbank at times.

There was one section along the hillside that had experienced some pretty significant erosion.
There was a small set of boards nailed together to assist with crossing the sketchiest part, but they were just lying on the hillside and not anchored in any way.

Just under two and a half miles from our camp we arrived at County Road 64. One could continue along this closed road for 4.6 miles to a gate just beyond the Monty Campground. A seasonal gate is located another 1.7-miles from the campground along the Metolius arm of Lake Billy Chinook.

The Shut-In Trail from CR-64.

CR-64

After a short break at the road we headed back.

Frog on a skunk cabbage leaf. There were a few wet areas along the Shut-In Trail which meant a few mosquitos were present.

The Sun going down as we approached camp.

Our first day wound up being 15.3-miles, 10.5 to reach camp and a 4.8-mile round trip on the Shut-In Trail. The elevation gain was only about 800′ total.

We woke up early the next morning hoping to stay ahead of the heat. After breakfast and packing up we followed the Lower Metolius River Road a total of 8-miles before cutting down to the trail along the river.

Pinedrops

Squirrel

Bee sleeping on thistle.

Large boykinia

The gentleman that had driven passed us the day before passed us again on his way into the cabins shortly before we turned off the road.
We turned off the road here on a well-established use trail down to the water.

Red admiral. As far as I know this is the first one of this species of butterfly that we’d seen.

Common wood nymph

Across from the Candle Creek Campground.

Green Ridge through some smoke. A couple of new fires, one on the Warm Springs Reservation and one East of Eugene had started over the weekend.

Love the colors of the Metolius.

Skipper on a mariposa lily.

Lower Bridge Campground is ahead to the left in the trees.

Our return hike came in at 10.1-miles which was the distance Reeder indicated between the trailhead and Shut-In Trail. The elevation gain was under 500′ of very gradual uphill, mostly along the road.

Blue is our hike to camp. Yellow is the Shut-In Trai.
Red is our return to the trailhead.

Heat aside this turned out to be a great backpacking trip. Over the two days we only passed one fly fisher (near Lower Bridge Campground), the private landowner (2x in his car), and a pair of hikers (again near Lower Bridge Campground). There were people across the river at Candle Creek Campground and in Lower Bridge Campground itself, but it was about as much solitude as we could have asked for. The condition of the trails was also better than we’d expected despite the rough end of the Shut-In Trail toward CR-64. It was a successful test run of our new gear as well and we now feel ready for our longer trip coming up in August. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Middle Metolius River

Tags backpacking, Candle Creek Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Green Ridge, hiking, Lower Bridge Campground, Lower Metolius River Road, Metolius River, Monty Campground, Oregon, Shut-In Trail

Clackamas Hiking Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Sheepshead Rock, Plaza Lake, and Tumala Mt. – 07/15/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 17, 2023
No Comments on Sheepshead Rock, Plaza Lake, and Tumala Mt. – 07/15/2023

A heat wave arrived for the weekend which had me looking for a hike that might not be too warm. After checking the forecast for a few areas on NOAA the lowest high (78 degrees Fahrenheit) for hikes on our to-do list was in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness near Sheepshead Rock and Plaza Lake.

My original plan for this hike was to start at the Twin Springs Trailhead aka Old Baldy East Trailhead and take the Plaza Trail past Sheepshead Rock to Salmon Mountain then drive (or road walk) on to the Plaza Lake Trailhead to visit the lake. As I was doing more research to prepare for the hike, I read a couple of different reports mentioning a rough 10.5-mile final stretch of road to that trailhead. An alternative was to drive to the Old Baldy West Trailhead, an entirely paved route which according to Google Maps was also an hour shorter drive from Salem. Starting here would put Salmon Mountain out of reach distance wise, but the route would pass the cutoff to Tumala Mountain which we had visited in 2019 (post).

The plan was now set but the day before the hike Heather started feeling a bit under the weather. With her not feeling 100% we decided she would skip this outing. I set off extra early hoping to keep things as cool as possible arriving at the trailhead a little after 6am.

Rhododendron at the trailhead.

I turned right on the Old Baldy Trail and after passing the Eagle Creek Cutoff Trail on my left I quickly remembered how steep some of the climbs were on this trail.
Eagle Creek Cutoff Trail on the left just before the first steep climb.

Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness sign. I would be in and out of the wilderness several times on my route.

Pictures rarely capture the actual steepness of the trails but the third of a mile past this trail sign had me wondering if I was going to be able to complete my planned hike.

The trail leveled out for a short distance allowing me to catch my breath and then dropped to a saddle before climbing again, but at a more reasonable grade.

Starting the descent to the saddle.

The Fanton Trail joins on the right from below around three-quarters of a mile from the Old Badly West Trailhead.

Coral fungus

Approximately 1.25-miles from the trailhead I arrived at a junction with the Tumala Mountain Trail.
The Old Baldy Trail turns left here while the Tumala Mountain Trail continues straight.

A small unreadable sign was the only identifier for the continuation of the Old Baldy Trail. I was a little concerned seeing blowdown on this trail from the junction but as it turned out the trail was in good shape and the trees that were down were easily stepped over.

I had decided to save Tumala Mountain for later since I had already been up to the summit. While it was only a third of a mile, I wasn’t sure about adding the extra distance and elevation on what promised to be a warm day. The other reason for waiting was that the Sun wouldn’t be between myself and Mt. Hood later in the day, and it surely would have been this early.

The Old Baldy Trail descended for a mile losing roughly 500′, most of it in the first third of a mile.

One of four switchbacks in the first 0.3-miles.

Cat’s ear lily

Cascade lily

The trail leveled out as it passed under some rock outcroppings and crossed a scree slope where I heard the distinctive “meeps” of several pikas but was unable to spot any.

Oregon sunshine

Larkspur & ?

Paintbrush

Bunchberry, not sure what is causing the white at the end of the leaves. I’d never noticed that before.

Lupine

View at the scree slope

I’m pretty sure there were at least three pikas down there somewhere.

Tumala Mountain in the center.

From left to right is East Mountain, Thunder Mountain (post), Fish Creek Mountain (post), and Whaleshead. Sadly, all but Thunder Mountain were burned in the 2020 Riverside Fire.

Beyond the scree slope the trail began a gradual half mile climb to a ridge end where it then descended for a quarter mile to the Twin Springs Trailhead.
Little prince’s pine

Cascade lilies, a few lupine and a paintbrush.

Carolina bugbane and foam flower.

Spur trail from the Twin Springs Trailhead (Old Baldy East) on the right.

To reach the Plaza Lake Trail I would need to hike Forest Road 4610 just under a mile from the Twin Springs Trailhead while Sheepshead Rock was another 1.5-miles along what was now the Plaza Trail.
I had been wrestling with whether to visit Sheepshead Rock or Plaza Lake first. It was still early enough that the Sun would likely be influencing the quality of view from Sheepshead Rock and the trail to Plaza Lake would require a 500′ climb back up the half mile Plaza Lake Trail. Visiting the lake first would give the Sun time to travel further West and mean I would be making that climb a little earlier in the day. The argument for Sheepshead Rock first was that the lake was the only source of water along my route and doing the 3.2-mile out-and-back to the viewpoint before the lake would give me a better idea of whether or not I would need to replenish any water for my return hike. (I had brought an extra Hydro Flask full of water along with my usual 3-liters.) In the end visiting Sheepshead Rock first won out due to the water so I stayed straight on the Plaza Trail.

The Plaza Trail climbed very gently through the forest, at first running somewhat parallel to FR 4610 before turning left (North) at an old roadbed. This was the sight of the former Plaza Guard Station. Supposedly there was an old stone fireplace here but I wasn’t able to spot it at all.

Part of the foundation at the former guard station site.

The old road.

The trail continued its gradual climb crossing the “Plaza”, a wide area along the ridge where avalanche lilies were blooming in large numbers.

Mosquitos had been a bit of a nuisance all morning and here every time I stopped for pictures a high-pitched whine reminded me of their presence, so I kept my stops to a minimum.
Not a big beargrass year but there was a few blooming along the trail.

Beyond the Plaza the ridge narrowed and the trail dopped a little to traverse along its side.

I was watching for a small spur trail to the right for Sheepshead Rock and was fooled once.
I went up this trail to find it just immediately dropped back down to the Plaza Trail.

The correct spur to Sheepshead Rock.

I turned up the spur trail and made my up Sheepshead Rock.

Mt. Hood

Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood

Some light scrambling brought me to the top of the rock.

Mt. St. Helens, Goat Rocks, and Mt. Adams in the distance. The high point to the left along the forested ridge is Wildcat Mountain (post).

Mt. St. Helens

Goat Rocks and Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood with the South Fork Salmon River valley below.

Orange agoseris

Oregon sunshine and yarrow

Saxifrage

Penstemon

Bluebells of Scotland

After a nice, albeit warm, break at the viewpoint I headed back toward the Twin Springs Trailhead. When I arrived back at the old roadbed I got a wild hair and decided to turn onto it. A quick check of the map showed that it was a more direct line to FR 4610 allowing me to cut some distance off total mileage for the day. There were a few downed trees along the way but for the most part it was easy walking and I arrived at FR 4610 in 0.3 miles.

I turned left on FR 4610 and followed it for 0.6 miles to a sign on the left for the Plaza Lake Trail Trail.
Valerian

Moth on an arnica.

The Plaza Lake Trail sign on the left.

A very short, rough spur road led to a couple of parking spaces and the start of the Plaza Lake Trail.

The trail made seventeen switchbacks on the way down to the lake. I was thankful for these on the way back up as they kept the trail from ever being too steep.
View from one of the switchbacks.

Pacific coralroot

Bunchberry with the more familiar all green leaves.

Plaza Lake below from the trail.

Twin flower

There were some nice big trees along the trail.

At one time the Plaza Trail continued beyond the lake all the way to the Salmon River but now it effectively ends at the lake. (Note that there didn’t seem to be any viable campsites at the lake which might be one reason there were signs of people having camped at the trailhead.)

I took another break at the lake to watch the dragonflies, change into dry socks, and check my water supply.

Looking up from the lakeshore.

After determining that I had sufficient water for the reminder of my hike I made the climb back up to FR 4610 and followed it back to the Twin Springs Trailhead. During the road walk I was passed by two OHVs, the first other people I had seen all morning.

I’d missed Mt. Hood on the way down.

Mt. Hood

Anemones

Spirea and lupine

A fritillary butterfly.

The former Twin Springs Campground was near the trailhead on the opposite side of FR 4610.

The Twin Springs Trailhead.

Old Baldy Trailhead sign at the Twin Springs Trailhead.

Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness sign (straight ahead) at the Old Bald/Plaza Trail junction.

I turned left onto the Old Baldy Trail and followed it approximately 1.8 miles back up to the junction with Tumala Mountain Trail.
I stopped again at the scree slope to look for pikas. All was quiet as they apparently had retreated underground to avoid the heat, but with more light in the valley below I could make out a green meadow in the trees.

Columbine along the trail.

Grey jay

Back at the Tumala Mountain Trail junction.

Having seen Mt. Hood from the Plaza Lake Trail and seeing that the view was indeed better than it had been earlier I turned left up the Tumala Mountain Trail and made the 0.3-mile climb to its summit.

My first view of Mt. Jefferson on the day.

Mt. Jefferson

A yet to blossom rhododendron.

Fading lousewort and valerian.

A blooming rohdodendron.

I ran into the first other hiker of the day at the former lookout site. She mentioned that she had planned on hiking from the Old Baldy East Trailhead but wound up at the Old Baldy West Trailhead instead. She had put Old Baldy Trailhead as her destination in her driving directions instead of Twin Springs so it took her to the same trailhead I’d started at. The view from the summit was clearer than it had been on my previous visit.
Mt. Hood. The scree slope is also visible through the trees on the hillside to the lower right.

I wandered along the rocky summit a bit to get different views. Along with the hiker at the former lookout site there was a radio operator and another pair of hikers in the area.
Mt. Jefferson in the distance.

Mt. Jefferson

Three Fingered Jack and the Three Sisters

More Cascade lilies.

Mt. St. Helens in the distance.

Mt. St. Helens

A better view of the scree field and the meadows below Tumala Mountain.

Parts of Mt. Adams were also visible, but I wasn’t able to find a spot without trees in the way to get a clear view. Satisfied with the views I headed back down to the Old Baldy Trail and then continued on returning to the trailhead.
Penstemon and lupine.

Passing the Fanton Trail junction on the way back.

Looking at the final climb of the day from the saddle.

With most of the trails passing through forest there was a lot of shade so despite it reaching the 70s by the time I was finishing at Noon it never felt uncomfortably hot. I hadn’t needed all of my 3-liters of water, but I was close to needing to break into the Hydro Flask. The hike itself came in at 12.9 miles with 3240′ of elevation gain. {My shortcut on the closed road from the guard station site to FR 4610 cut 0.6-miles off.)

While I missed having Heather with me the combination of warm weather and mosquitos made this a good one for her to miss. She seemed to be feeling quite a bit better when I got home so hopefully I won’t be heading out solo again in the foreseeable future. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Sheepshead Rock, Plaza Lake, and Tumala Mountain

Tags Fanton Trail, hiking, Mt. Hood National Forest, Old Baldy East Trailhead, Old Baldy Trail, Old Baldy West Trailhead, Oregon, Plaza Guard Station, Plaza Lake, Plaza Lake Trail, Plaza Lake Trailhead, Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, Sheepshead Rock, The Plaza, Tumala Mountain, Tumala Mountain Trail, Twin Springs Campground, Twin Springs Trailhead

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Washington Area Oregon Trip report

Santiam Wagon Road – McKenzie River TH to Sand Mountain – 07/08/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 10, 2023
6 Comments on Santiam Wagon Road – McKenzie River TH to Sand Mountain – 07/08/2023

From 1865 to 1939 the Santiam Wagon Road served as the primary means of transportation from the Willamette Valley to Central Oregon. Beginning in Lebanon the nearly 400-mile route crossed the central Cascade Mountains at Santiam Pass. Sections of the road have been preserved and now serve as trails.

We’d previously hiked sections at House Rock (post), Tombstone Pass (post), Fish Lake (post), Sand Mountain (post), and Whychus Canyon Preserve (post). For our previous hike to Sand Mountain we had started near Big Lake and followed the wagon road West for almost three miles to forest road 2690-810 which leads to Sand Mountain.

For this visit we began to the West of Sand Mountain at the McKenzie River Trailhead.

The 26.5-mile long McKenzie River Trail shares this trailhead with the Sanitam Wagon Road.

We set off on the wagon road through an old lava flow. The flow was old enough that the forest had had time to mature.

Prince’s pine

Candystick

Twinflower

Big uprooted tree.

The road climbed gradually from the trailhead for three miles to a crossing of Forest Road 2676.

A carpet of vanilla leaf leaves.

FR 2676

We jogged left on FR 2676 for approximately 50′ to a gate and the continuation of the Santiam Wagon Road.
Despite the “Closed to all Motor Vehicles” sign it was obvious, and unfortunately not surprising, that some people feel they have a right to ignore anything they disagree with.

The road continued its gradual climb but the surface now was much sandier which required a bit more effort. The forest also changed from large fir trees to smaller lodgepole pine and snowbrush.
More candysticks

The few sections that weren’t sandy consisted of lava rock.

Dwarf lupine

Pussy paws

Pygmy short-horned lizard next to a deer print.

Sand Mountain on the right.

Another pygmy short-horned lizard

Snowbrush lining the road with the northern end of Sand Mountain ahead.

Butterflies, including this hoary comma, and other pollinators love the snowbrush.

Hoary comma

Just over a mile and a half beyond FR 2676 we passed another gate at a junction with FR 890. Here the road is open to motorized vehicles as part of a large Santiam Pass OHV Trails network. The large amount of trails/roads open to these types of vehicles in the area made their usage on the closed section of the Santiam Wagon Road even more annoying.

We followed this portion of the road for 0.4-miles to the gated road to Sand Mountain.
Penstemon

The Moon over Sand Mountain.

Mt. Washington

Sign and gate at the road to Sand Mountain.

We followed this road uphill for a mile and a half to a parking area between Sand Mountains two craters. As we climbed the surrounding peaks came into view.

Buckwheat

More snowbrush

California tortoiseshell

The Sand Mountain Lookout from below.

Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack

Mt. Washington and the Three Sister

Western swallowtail

The Three Pyramids(post), Scar Mountain & Trappers Butte(post), and Coffin & Bachelor Mountains (post).

Echo Mountain & North Peak to the left and Crescent Mountain(post) to the right.

Browder Ridge (post) to the center-left, Iron Mountain center, and South Peak, Cone Peak, Echo Mountain & North Peak to the right.

Lorquin’s admiral

From the parking area we followed the lined trail uphill for 0.4-miles to the staffed Sand Mountain Lookout.

Mt. Washington (post), Belknap Crater (post), and the Three Sisters.

Maxwell Butte (post), Mt. Jefferson, and Three Fingered Jack.

Just a bit of snow left on the North facing slope.

Western pasque flower

It’s very faint but the top of Mt. Hood was visible over the lower left shoulder of Maxwell butte.

Penstemon

Belknap Crater, the Three Sisters, The Husband, Scott Mountain (post), and Diamond Peak (post) in the distance.

Zoom of Diamond Peak. The round looking hump in front is Fuji Moutain (post).

Hoodoo and Hayrick Buttes, Black Butte (post), and Cache Mountain.

There were quite a few bumblebees at the summit interested in the rocks in this area.

This Edith’s checkerspot joined the bees for a moment.

We stopped to talk to the current staffer who said it was the nicest morning he’d seen in almost a week. The amount of smoke/haze was indeed much less than we’d experience on the 4th at Rocky Top (post). Before continuing on we confirmed with him that the loop around the crater was still open to hiking and he said it was and also suggested that we take the closed road back to the parking area instead of looping all the way around back to the lookout. His reasoning was that the last climb up to the lookout was a bit of a scramble. On our previous visit we had actually gone down that section as we had done the loop counterclockwise. We planned on a clockwise loop this time so we thanked him and kept the road return open as an option.
Viewpoint below the lookout.

The lookout from the viewpoint.

Not sure if this is an aster or a fleabane.

The trail getting ready to drop down to a saddle. The peaks from right to left are: Browder Ridge, Twin Buttes, Latiwi Mountain, Wildcat Moutain, Tidbits Mountain (post), Bunchgrass Mountain, and Carpenter Mountain (post) followed by an unidentified ridge on the left.

We were a little surprised to find these broomrape hiding in this silverleaf phacelia.

Drummond’s anemone

Look into the crater.

A couple of penstemon blossoms with the Three Sisters in the background.

The colors around the crater add to the scenery.

Pyrola of some sort.

Starting the steep climb back toward the lookout.

View from the roadbed. We opted to do as the lookout staffer suggested and follow the road back down toward the parking area instead of back up to the lookout.

There was one good sized snow drift left encroaching on the road.

The forecast had said there was a slight chance of showers starting at Noon with another slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon beginning at 2pm. Aside from some clouds to the over Central Oregon to the East and one or two strays over Mt. Washington the sky remained was still clear as we headed back.
This little cloud wasn’t much of a threat.

If anything the views had improved now that Sun was more directly overhead.

Not long after we’d started back down the road from the parking area we spotted another hiker on her way up. It would be the only other hiker we’d see on the roads/trails all day and it turned out to be one of the strangest coincidences we’ve ever experienced. On the drive to the trailhead that morning we were having a discussion about how often we wind up doing a hike just days before or after we see one of the other hikers we follow doing the same hike. There have also been numerous times where we find out after a hike or trip that we were in the same area or even the same trails at the same time but somehow missed each other. The only person we have run into more than once is Cheryl Hill (Just Peachy), once during a 2015 hike in Jefferson Park (post) and the other near Table Lake in 2018 (post). After the whole conversation that morning we were pleasantly surprised to find it was again Cheryl. This was her first visit to this lookout and she mentioned that it would be her 91st. She is currently working on visiting all of the standing lookouts in Oregon a project that we find very interesting. We had a nice conversation then headed our respective directions.

On the way back there were somehow even more butterflies vising the snowbrush.
A checkerspot

A hairstreak

Three Fingered Jack and Hoodoo Butte

Three Fingered Jack. Note the climbers trail on the slope to the right.

Ash in the basin below Sand Mountain.

Pussy paws

Female western tanager

Moth

Snake in the trail.

The snake retreated to a nearby log when we approached.

Back in the forest.

This moth blended with the nearby fungus.

I had contemplated hiking the McKenzie River Trail down to Clear Lake (post) prior to returning to the car but that was before I knew how far our hike to Sand Mountain was going to be. The hike turned out to be 14.7 miles with 2500′ of mostly gradual elevation gain.

We have this section of the McKenzie River Trail on our to-do list so we decided to wait until then and retuned to the car to prepare for the drive home.

Although it was a little longer hike than we’d planned it was a good hike and not particularly difficult. The location of the lookout between the High Cascades and Old Cascades provides excellent views and the crater is an interesting feature. Add in the history of the Santiam Wagon Road with the solitude we experienced and you’ve got a really nice day. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Santiam Wagon Road to Sand Mountain

Tags cascade mountains, hiking, Oregon, Pygmy short-horned lizard, Sand Mountain, Sand Mountain Lookout, Santiam Wagon Road, Upper McKenzie River Trailhead

Hiking Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Natural Rock Arch, Rocky Top, & North Santiam Park – 07/04/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 6, 2023
5 Comments on Natural Rock Arch, Rocky Top, & North Santiam Park – 07/04/2023

Traditionally we take a hike on July 4th somewhere in the Cascade foothills. Last year we broke that tendency by spending an extended weekend in California’s Siskiyou Wilderness (post). This year we set our sights back on the Cascade foothills with plans to hike three short trails featured in a couple of Matt Reeder’s guidebooks. All of the trails we were visiting today were impacted by the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire.

Our first stop of the morning was at the Natural Rock Arch Trailhead. Located in the Santiam State Forest Reeder combines the Natural Rock Arch Trail and the Rocky Top Trail as hike #15 in his “101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region” 2nd edition.

The forecast for Salem was for temps in the mid-90s so we got an early start.

The Natural Rock Arch Trail set off downhill from the small parking area through burned woods.

There were a number of wildflowers blooming along the trail including some impressive Cascade lilies.
Bleeding heart and penstemon

Iris

Cascade lily

Scouler’s bluebell

Inside-out flower

A few green trees remain.

Another Cascade lily

The trail was in pretty good shape overall and we could tell there was ongoing trail work. It looked like there were some rock steps that were going be placed in this section.

Penstemon

Oregon sunshine

It was a half mile descent to the Natural Rock Arch.

View from the arch.

Fin below the arch.

The trail continues through the arch and uphill a short distance on the other side to a small cave/overhang.

After visiting the arch we hiked back up to the trailhead regaining the 500′ in elevation we’d lost on the way down. The climb was the main reason we’d started with this trail preferring to make the climb before it got too warm.

In the guidebook Reeder has you drive to the Rocky Top Trailhead which is just under 2 miles away. The last mile or so of the drive to the Natural Rock Arch Trailhead had been a little rough and I didn’t feel like two more miles of the same so we decided to walk the road instead. While there was another 500′ of elevation difference between the two trailheads the gain looked to be very gradual on the topographic map.

This wound up being a great choice as the road was lined with wildflowers for nearly its entire length, and we also spotted a pika along the way.

Snowberry checkerspot

Rocky Top straight ahead.

Penstemon and big deer vetch

Cascade lily

Oregon sunshine, penstemon, Oregon bedstraw, and a daisy or two.

Oregon sunshine and paintbrush

There was a fair amount of shade while the Sun was still low.

Paintbrush and penstemon

Thimbleberry

Bleeding heart. There was more bleeding heart on this hillside than we’d ever seen in one spot.

Eight-spotted Forester-Alypia octomaculata

Pika below the road.

Pika

Rhododendron

The Three Sisters on a hazy morning.

Anemone

Paintbrush and lupine

Beargrass

A few patches of green below Rocky Top.

This was probably the worst spot in the road in between the two trailheads.

Bunchberry

Trillium with a few petals yet to fall off.

Violets

Spirea and valerian

Large boykinia

Lots of lupine.

Larkspur and phacelia

Arriving at the Rocky Top Trailhead.

A Marion County Sherrif drove up in his pickup as I arrived at the trailhead. We had a nice talk before he started back down the road. Heather arrived shortly afterward and we started up the Rocky Top Trail together.

Clodius paranssian

More flowers awaited along the 0.7 climb to the former lookout site atop Rocky Top.
Columbine

Beardstongue

Lupine

The road from the trail. The taller, rounded, peak in the center is Sardine Mountain (post). Sardine Mountain Road has yet to reopen after the 2020 fire.

Mt. Washington and the Three Sisters.

We decide the primary cause of the haze was smoke from the Tunnel 5 Fire on the Washington side of the Columbia River across from Hood River with the fires in Canada most likely adding their own smoke to the mix. The hazy view didn’t bother us though as the wildflowers and abundant pollinators held our attention.

Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington and the Three Sisters.

Mt. Jefferson through the haze.

Elkhorn Ridge (post) with Mt. Hood in the distance to the right. Elkhorn Ridge and Opal Creek Wilderness beyond were severely impacted by the fire and remain closed for now.

Mt. Hood above ridges of burned forest.

The loss of the trees did result in better views of the various rock formations in the area.

We’d never seen so many of these eight-spotted forester moths.

Hummingbird taking a rest from visiting the penstemon and paintbrush.

Another moth that had some excellent camo.

The moth putting its camouflage to use.

Penstemon

Rose

Rocky Top from the trail.

This was the only pink colored penstemon we spotted.

Lupine and beargrass

Not sure which of the Lycaenidae this is but it was pretty.

The spirea was popular.

Bumble bee

At one point it looked like Three Fingered Jack was sitting on top of Coffin Mountain (post).

Nice blue sky overhead.

Looking North. Henline Mountain (post) is the high peak on the other side of Elkhorn Ridge.

Bistort and penstemon

Haven’t been able to identify this one yet.

Beargrass

A snowberry checkerspot and some fried avalanche lilies.

The trail wound behind Rocky Top to come up the West ridge to the summit.

Arnica

Sub-alpine mariposa lily

Tiger lily and beardstongue

Catchfly

There was a 360-degree view from the summit which was of course impacted by the smoke. On a clear day we would have been able to see Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens in Washington but we settled for a string of Oregon Cascades and Mary’s Peak in the Coast Range.
Not sure what the story is behind this chair, but we weren’t about to test its stability.

Detroit Lake

Mary’s Peak (post) is really hard to make out, but it is on the far left of the horizon.

Looking North we could see Table Rock (post), the high point in the center, behind Henline Mountain closer and to the left and Elkhorn Ridge nearest.

Closer look at Table Rock.

Henline Mountain, Table Rock, Mt. Hood, in front and just to the right of Mt. Hood is Whetstone Mountain (post) and the two humps in the distance to the far right are North and South Dickey Peaks.

Mountain bluebird checking us out.

Mt. Jefferson

Three Fingered Jack behind Coffin Mountain, Maxwell Butte (post), Mt. Washington, the Three Sisters, and The Husband.

While we were at the summit we spotted another car driving up the road to the trailhead so after a nice break we headed back to let the next visitor(s) have their turn.

Zerene fritillary

Beargrass

Moth and a checkerspot

We passed the couple from the car about halfway down the trail. It would be the only other hikers we would pass on the trails this day. (We did see a few others but not on the trails.)
The road walk between trailheads was a butterfly bonanza. The road was now in full sunlight and that had brought out hundreds of butterflies and moths.

A bee, a moth, and a butterfly land on some flowers…

Painted lady

Fireweed Clearwing Moth (Albuna pyramidalis).

A fritillary and a copper.

Two coppers and a bee.

Checkerspots, a bee, a copper and part of an eight-spotted forester moth.

Eight-spotted forester moth.

The previous four photos were all from this group of Oregon sunshine.

Bleeding heart, no butterfly but a nice group of blossoms.

More moths and butterflies.

Swallowtail on penstemon

One of the blues I think, but not sure which.

Lorquin’s admiral

With the road walk included our hike here came in at 6.4 miles with a little over 1800′ of cumulative elevation gain.

We headed back toward Salem and turned into the North Santiam State Recreation Area (3.8 miles West of Mill City or 28.6 miles East of Salem along Highway 22.) While this is a State Recreation Area Marion County is managing the park through at least 2024 following the 2020 fire. Reeder described a 2.3-mile loop here but we weren’t sure what we’d find with limited information available online. We parked near the day-use picnic area and followed the sidewalk left past a large signboard for the campground to a small “Trail” sign.

We turned onto a wide mowed path and followed it into the fire scar which was hosting masses of very tall fireweed.

Sparrow

Stellar’s jay

We almost missed the spur trail to the larger loop which was unsigned and hidden by some brush.
The spur trail is to the right just ahead.

We turned right onto the spur and quickly came to a “T” junction where we turned right following a “To River” sign.

We watched a norther flicker fly into the snag ahead and it took a minute to figure out where he was.

The flicker

At the river the trail curved right following it to the camping area.

Trailing blackberries. We might have found a few ripe ones.

Arriving at the camping area.

North Santaim River

We continued on what was now a paved path to a road
Oregon grape

Mock orange

The boat launch.

North Santiam River

It was a lot cooler by the river than it was on the paths so we lingered for a bit before heading back to the loop. Prior to the fire the loop crossed the road to the boat launch and continued in the forest eventually crossing the park entrance road and completing the loop near the “To River” sign. We quickly discovered that the loop no longer existed on the north side of the roads. We up the boat launch road past the trail we arrived on then past the park host. We could have just turned right at the parking lot, but we decided to see if any of the loop remained. A short way up the entrance road we spotted paint for a crosswalk.
The park host on the left and the parking lot on the right.

Crosswalk for the pre-fire loop.

Looking North from the crosswalk there was zero sign of the former trail.

They had at least restored this short section of the loop so we were able to return to the spur trail and turn right then right again to complete the inner loop.

The “To River” sign at the spur trail junction.

Possibly a western wood pee-wee

Spotted towhee

Osprey

The park host from the trail.

The loop as we did it is now only 1.7-miles with 50′ of elevation gain.

The park wasn’t as crowded as we thought it might be on a hot holiday and there was no one else hiking the trails here. It was a nice enough end to a good day hiking and we had finished just after Noon so we had avoided the hottest parts of the day. To be honest we hadn’t expected a whole lot from any of these hikes and had chosen them primarily for their proximity to Salem, but the Natural Rock Arch and Rocky Top far exceeded our expectations. We were home around 1pm and had the rest of the afternoon to relax with the cats. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Natural Rock Arch, Rocky Top, and North Santiam Park

Tags Albuna pyramidalis, Beachie Creek Fire, Butterfly, hiking, Natuarl Rock Arch Trailhead, Natural Rock Arch, North Santiam Park, North Santiam River, North Santiam State Recreation Area, Oregon, Rocky Top, santiam state forest, wildflowers

Hiking Oregon Roseburg Area Trip report Willamette Valley

Fern Falls and Comstock Day Use Area – 06/25/23

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 28, 2023
1 Comment on Fern Falls and Comstock Day Use Area – 06/25/23

We spent the night in Roseburg after making the long drive from Salem to Marial for a day hike along the Rogue River (post) and on the way home we made a couple of stops. Our plan involved portions of two of Sullivan’s featured hikes. Because we’d done one of the options for each of the hikes we had checked them off our to-do list, but we didn’t want to pass up the chance to do the additional options.

Our first stop involved a short out-and-back to Fern Falls along the North Umpqua Trail. In his Fall Creek Falls hike Sullivan provides two options, the hike to Fall Creek Falls (post) or three stops including Fall Creek Falls, Susan Creek Falls (post), and Fern Falls.

It took a bit of research online to figure out if the section of the North Umpqua Trail to Fern Falls was actually open. The area burned in the 2020 Archie Creek Fire closing the lower sections of the trail. The first few miles are managed by the BLM before the Forest Service takes over at the Umpqua National Forest boundary. The Forest Service has not lifted their closure order but it wasn’t clear whether or not the BLM had reopened their portion. Since there was no information on the BLM site stating that the trail was closed and several people had posted recent trip reports on Alltrails we decided to give it a try and drove to the Swiftwater Trailhead along the North Umpqua River.

There was no closure order posted at the trailhead and a couple of fishermen had beaten us to the parking area so we set off on the trail.

Fireweed

At the quarter-mile mark we forked right on a spur trail to an interpretive sign overlooking Deadline Falls.

Deadline Falls

After admiring the falls we returned to the North Umpqua Trail and continued on through the fire scar.
Signs of ongoing trail work.

Northern phlox

Remains of a footbridge lost to the Archie Creek Fire.

The current creek crossing. We joked that this was a prime difference between the BLM and Forest Service. It feels like the Forest Service waits until everything has been repaired (plus a year or two) before reopening trails after a fire while the BLM reopens them once they are passable.

Self-heal

The trailing blackberries were ripening along the trail providing us with a nice second breakfast.

North Umpqua River from the trail.

We also spotted a few ripe blackcap raspberries.

Bleeding heart

Crab spider on a California harebell.

Heather was really excited to find ripe thimbleberries too.

Highway 138 on the far side of the river.

Approximately 1.7 miles from the trailhead we arrived at Fern Falls.

A fallen log dissected the view of the falls, a result of the fire but it was a nice view and a good turn around point.

Musk monkeyflower

I managed to pull a ripe salmonberry out of this bush below Fern Falls.

We returned the way we’d come under increasing sunlight. Birds had been singing all morning and with the increased light we were finally able to spot some of them.

Moth

Lazuli bunting

Black-headed grosbeak

Unidentified small bird.

Wren, possibly a house wren.

This little one was way up atop a snag. Merlin suggests it’s a Macgillivray’s warbler.

Woodpecker

Backside of a Stellar’s jay.

Raven

Our hike here came to 3.4 miles with maybe 300′ of elevation gain.

We hopped into the car and drove to our next stop at the Comstock Day Use Area for the BLM managed North Bank Habitat Management Area.

We had visited the area in 2015 starting a loop from the West Access Trailhead. We planned another loop from this trailhead which would share a 1.2-mile section of that earlier loop.

We began by passing a green gate at the NW end (left) of the trailhead parking area and following an old roadbed for 0.1-miles to a fork.

We stayed right on the signed Soggy Bottom Trail.

We followed the Soggy Bottom Trail for 0.7 miles to the Middle Barn.

Checker-mallow

Turkey vulture

We spotted a deer way up on the hillside in the distance.

Heading down to Soggy Bottom.

Middle Barn

We stayed right past a road to the barn and continued to the next fork and turned left on the North Gate Trail.
Soggy Bottom

Bindweed

The North Gate Trail ahead on the left.

North Gate Trail

Elegant brodiaea

Common wood nymph

The trail climbed steadily for the first three quarters of a mile passing a grove of cedars near the end of the stretch.

The cedar grove.

A little past the cedar grove we passed an old structure on the opposite side of a barbed wire fence.

On the far side of the structure was a sign for the Wrong Way Trail which looked as though it saw little to no use. The map at the trailhead showed this trail dead-ending in the forest which might explain why.

Beyond the Wrong Way Trail junction the North Gate Trail began a much steeper climb up to a junction at a saddle with the Middle Ridge Trail.

Much of this section was in full sunlight making it a bit of a trudge.
View from the North Gate Trail.

Steepest section of the trail but at least there was some shade here.

Gopher snake

Trail sign at the saddle.

We turned left on the Middle Ridge Trail for 1.2 semi-familiar miles.
The Middle Ridge Trail.

View from the Middle Ridge Trail.

View from the saddle.

A dip along the ridge.

First view of the North Umpqua River.

Hawk on a tree.

A different hawk in flight.

Elegant brodiaea

Looking back along the Middle Ridge Trail.

We remembered this structure in the ground.

Approximately 1.2 miles from the saddle we arrived at a junction with the Thistle Ridge Trail.
Approaching the junction.

View back up along the trail.

Whistlers Bend Reservoir and the North Umpqua River. Despite a bit of haze the view was far better than it had been in 2015.

The 2015 view on a cloudy June 5th.

We turned onto the Thistle Ridge Trail which led us past a few great madrone trees.

Ookow

View from the Thistle Ridge Trail. Below is the lower portion of the trail which seemed to be quite a way down.

We quickly realized why it seemed so far down when we came to what we believe may be the steepest section of trail we’ve hiked.
When you can’t see the bottom of the hill you know it’s steep.