For the second hike of my September vacation I decided to revisit one of our earliest hikes. Our first visit and only previous visit to Duffy Lake (post) had been over 15 years ago and was only our 14th day spent hiking. Since that time I have spent 774 more days on trails. My plan for this outing was to revisit Duffy and Mowich Lakes and to continue on to Jorn Lake which we had visited on a 2016 hike starting from the Marion Lake Trailhead (post). I left open the option to hike up Red Butte depending on the amount of wildfire haze, and how I was feeling.
I obtained a Central Cascades Wilderness Day Use Permit for the Duffy Lake Trailhead and arrived shortly before sunrise (I had expected to be delayed by road construction.)
There were already a lot of cars at the trailhead.
I set off on the Duffy Lake Trail which was quickly joined on the left by the main spur of the Duffy Lake Trail which begins at Big Meadows Horse Camp at the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness boundary.
It’s 3.3-miles and 750′ of elevation gain to Duffy Lake from the trailhead which makes for a pretty gentle climb. Both Heather and I prefer to have shorter sections broken up by markers (preferably no more than 1.5-miles) and for this hike I used a couple of trail junctions to do just that. From the junction with the cutoff to Big Meadows Horse Camp it is approximately 1.4-miles to the Turpentine Trail.
The first of two rock fields along this stretch. I heard a couple of pikas but was unable to spot any of them.
The second rock field.
You can loop back to the trailhead by combining this trail with the Big Meadows Tie Trail which brings you to the Duffy Lake Trail coming from the horse camp about a half mile from the junction near the trailhead. Heather and I did that in 2010, but I opted not to add the additional three quarters of a mile to my day.
From the junction with the Turpentine Trail it is another mile and a half to the next junction with the Lava Lakes Trail.
The North Santiam River’s dry bed alongside the trail.
The trail crossing the riverbed.
A small part of Duffy Butte visible ahead.
The Lava Lakes Trail connects to the Maxwell Butte Trail (post) 2.8-miles away at Twin Lakes.
Three tenths of a mile from the Lava Lakes Trail I arrived at a 4-way junction at the SW end of Duffy Lake where a day use area provides a nice view.
Signs at the 4-way junction. The day use area was to the left and the faint 0.4-mile Duffy Prairie Trail forked off to the right.
Day use sign on the tree at the bottom.
Lousewort
Aster
After a quick stop at the day use area I continued along the lake stopping on a footbridge over the outlet which feeds the North Santiam River when the lake is full enough.
Common merganser
Shortly after crossing the bridge I arrived at a junction with the Blue Lake Trail which marks the end of the Duffy Lake Trail. The Blue Lake Trail is eight miles long with one end a tenth of a mile to the right (east) of the Duffy Lake Trail at a junction with the Duffy Prairie and Santiam Lake Trails and the other end at the Marion Lake Trail. In 2010 we had forked right onto the Duffy Prairie Trail then we took the Santiam Lake Trail to visit Santiam Lake and returned to the Blue Lake Trail via the Dixie Lakes Trail. I knew I wasn’t going to visit Santiam Lake since we had revisited that lake from the Pacific Crest Trail in 2021 (post). I was considering taking the Dixie Lakes Trail on the way back and cutting down here on the Blue Lake Trail though.
For now I continued straight on the Blue Lake Trail passing more great views of Duffy Lake and Butte.
It was just over three quarters of a mile from the Duffy Lake/Blue Lake junction to Mowich Lake which required gaining nearly 300′ of elevation. Along this section the trail passed in and out of the 2003 B&B Fire scar.
Meadow near the end of Duffy Lake.
Duffy Butte from the fire scar.
Huckleberry bush
The trail leveled out before arriving at Mowich Lake.
No campfire sign just before the lake. I took the spur to the left which led down to the lake while the Blue Lake Trail continued to the right.
Heading down to Mowich Lake.
Red Butte to the right.
Instead of returning to the trail via the spur I’d come down I decided to follow the lake shore for a bit thinking I would just pop back up on the Blue Lake Trail when another use trail appeared.
American pipit
Opting to follow the lake shore turned out to be a bit of a poor choice. I wasn’t seeing any other use trails and I could see on the map that the Blue Lake Trail veered uphill away from the lake near its middle. After checking my GPS and seeing that I was getting pretty close to where the trail would be turning away, I decided to just turn uphill and bushwack to it.
The trail is up there somewhere.
Found it!
Duffy Butte behind Mowich Lake.
The trail climbed gradually through the fire scar and past the junction with the Dixie Lakes Trail.
It was approximately 0.8-miles between the spur trail down to Mowich Lake and the Dixie Lakes Trail junction.
The trail leveled out at the junction and continued a third of a mile to a use trail just before Alice Lake.
Pearly everlasting along the trail.
Level trail in unburnt forest.
At the use trail I faced the choice of continuing straight to Jorn Lake or detouring up Red Butte. I was feeling up to the 500′, half mile climb and more importantly the visibility was good. The issue I ran into was there were three tents set up nearly on top of the trail. Not wanting to trapse through their camp I cut through the forest and started up the butte hoping to pick up the use trail at some point.
Alice Lake below.
The summit of Red Butte.
After climbing almost two tenths of a mile I spotted the use trail.
The use trail in the dirt area in the middle of the trees.
Following the use trail.
Penstemon
Bumble bee on thistle.
Maxwell Butte from the use trail.
Scott Mountain (post) on the left and Diamond Peak (post) in the distance to the right.
Mt. Jefferson behind the trees.
The summit of Red Butte.
Once I was at the summit I headed south to an overlook of Mowich Lake.
The two Dixie Lakes are visible in the forest to the left of Mowich Lake.
Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington, and the Three Sisters.
The Three Sisters behind Mt. Washington.
After admiring the view from this end of the butte I headed back across the summit to get the view to the north.
South Cinder Peak (post) between the trees and Rockpile Mountain to the right of them.
A little scrambling over the downed trees to the left resulted in a great view to the north.
Northern flicker
Saddle Mountain and Marion Mountain (post) to the left with Jorn Lake below and Mt. Jefferson in the distance.
Jorn Lake
Mt. Hood peaking up to the left of Mt. Jefferson.
Fritillary on thistle.
After soaking in the view headed back down the trail looking for a little shade to take a break in.
I used this log as a bench to have a snack and change out my socks before following the use trail down to Alice Lake.
Milk kellogia
I passed a little closer to the tents on my way back to the Blue Lake Trail then turned left and headed toward Jorn Lake.
Red Butte across Alice Lake from the Blue Lake Trail.
The tents on the far side of Alice Lake.
The trail began to descend toward the Eight Lakes Basin losing approximately 200′ in nearly a mile to a junction with the Bowerman Lake Trail near Jorn Lake.
Aster
Green Peak, Saddle Mountain, and Marion Mountain
Jorn Lake
I turned right onto the Bowerman Lake trail for a moment then took a use trail down to the lake.
After visiting the lake I headed back up the Blue Lake Trail. Two tenths of a mile from the Bowerman Lake Trail junction I veered downhill on a faint use trail to visit Red Butte Lake.
The top of Three Fingered Jack from the trail.
The use trail.
Three Fingered Jack from Red Butte Lake.
From Red Butte Lake I cut back up to the Blue Lake Trail and climbed back up past Alice Lake to the Dixie Lakes Trail junction.
From what little I could see of the Dixie Lakes Trail it appeared to be in good shape, so I veered left and headed for the lakes.
After half a mile I spotted North Dixie Lake through the trees.
I found a good use trail and headed down to the lake for a closer look.
Once again I decided to follow the lakeshore instead of returning to the trail and followed it to the southern end with a good view of Red Butte.
From North Dixie Lake I crossed a meadow and arrived at South Dixie Lake.
Woodpecker
Elk and deer prints in the mud.
It was a lot easier to cut back over to the trail from South Dixie Lake than it had been from Mowich Lake.
Not long after leaving South Dixie Lake the trail began to descend to its junction with the Santiam Lake Trail.
This was the only tree down along the trail which clearly receives maintenance from time to time.
The Three Pyramids (post)
Paintbrush
It was a total of 1.6-miles from the Blue Lake Trail junction to the junction with the Santiam Lake Trail.
I turned right on the Santiam Lake Trail and followed it 0.4-miles to the 3-way junction with the Blue Lake and Duffy Prairie trails.
Unsigned junction with the Duffy Prairie Trail on the left and the Blue Lake Trail on the right.
Since we had taken the Duffy Prairie Trail in 2010 I forked right onto the Blue Lake Trail which descended steeply to the junction with the Duffy Lake Trail in just a tenth of a mile.
The junction with the Duffy Lake Trail.
I turned left onto the Duffy Lake Trail and followed it 3.6-miles back to the car. There wasn’t much new to see on the way back. I still wasn’t able to spot any of the pikas I was hearing in the rock fields. Outside of small birds, chipmunks, and squirrels the only other critters I saw were a couple of grouse including one in the trail near the trailhead.
This hike came in at 15.3-miles with a just over 2000′ of cumulative elevation gain.
While most of the hike was on trails that we’d previously hiked I managed to get a small amount of new trail. While we’ve covered a lot of the area around Three Fingered Jack there are still some trails/sections left to explore.
There were a lot of people on the trails here, which was a little surprising given it was a Wednesday in September, but they were pretty spread out so no location that I visited felt crowded outside of the trailhead. The view from Red Butte is a really good one and well worth a visit. Happy Trails!
Flicker: Duffy Lake Trail to Jorn Lake
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