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
wanderingyuncks 