A heat dome was forecasted to arrive on Independence Day with the hottest temperatures expected over the weekend. We were hopeful that we could sneak our traditional 4th of July hike in before the heat arrived as it had been a fairly mild week leading up to the holiday. The hike we had planned was to take the Olallie Trail to Horsepasture Mountain starting at the Olallie North Trailhead.
We had visited Horsepasture Mountain back in 2018 via the Saddle Trail (post) which is a shorter approach by approximately five miles with 1000′ less elevation gain. Shorter still is starting at the Horsepasture Trailhead, but that is a longer drive and would have meant missing out on the section of the Olallie Trail that we hadn’t hiked before.
Trail map at the trailhead.
From the trailhead the Olallie Trail switchbacked up a ridge through a mixed forest before straightening out and following the ridge SE.
Rhododendron
Scouler’s bluebells
Twinflower and fringed pinesap
Sugar sticks
A section of the trail passed through the 2017 Avenue fire scar, but the tread was in good shape and all trees were cleared from the trail.
Mt. Washington was the first high Cascade Peak we obtained a view of.
North and Middle Sister followed next.
The trail spent some time on top of the ridge as well as each side as it gradually climbed.
Tiger lilies
Washington lilies were blooming along a section of the trail.
Washington lilies
Paintbrush
Northern phlox
Penstemon
Garter snake
Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack
Entering trees that survived the 2017 fire.
The hillsides that the trail traverses are pretty steep.
Common whipplea
Regaining the ridge top.
Better view of Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack with Maxwell Butte (post) and South Cinder Peak (post) in between.
Shortly after leaving the fire scar the trail began to steepen a bit.
Bunchberry, queen’s cup, and foam flower.
Near the 3.5-mile mark the trail crossed an abandoned forest road and steepened again
It had been warming up quickly and Heather and I had decided to split a little below this road crossing. Despite not being able to spell “Heather” without “Heat” it is her hiking nemesis. We set a time that would be the latest I headed back at and chose the road crossing as a meeting point. Heather planned on continuing but wasn’t sure how far she would feel comfortable going. We set the road as a meeting point so that if she didn’t make it up Horsepasture Mountain before I headed back I would know I’d missed here somewhere along the trail if I got to the road and she wasn’t there.
A tenth of a mile beyond the road crossing the O’Leary Mountain Trail joined from the right.
We had hiked to MacDuff Mountain on the O’Leary Trail just a few weeks earlier (post).
Beyond the junction the Olallie Trail leveled out then slowly descended 200′ over the next 1.1 miles to a junction with the Saddle Trail. The hillsides along this section were fairly exposed to the Sun which warmed things up even more, but also provided some nice wildflower displays.
This section also had a few smaller trees down over it.
Columbine
Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington, and Scott Mountain (post).
Trillium
Valerian
Wallflower and buckwheat
Purple larkspur, yellow cinquefoil, and white sub-alpine mariposa lilies
Paintbrush and lupine
North and Middle Sister with Horsepasture Mountain on the right.
Oregon bluebells
Penstemon
Butterfly on bistort
Musk monkeyflower
A stalk of beargrass along the trail.
Jacob’s-ladder
Bane berry and solomonseal
Vanilla leaf
The Saddle Trail arriving from the right.
One hundred yards downhill from the Saddle Trail junction I arrived at a 4-way junction with the Horsepasture Mountain Trail.
Downhill to the left is the Horsepasture Trailhead, uphill to the left is Horsepasture Mountain and the Olallie Trail continues along the righthand fork.
From the junction the Horsepasture Mountain Trail climbs over 850′ in a little under a mile and a half. The trail begins with a steady traverse along the side of Horsepasture Mountain before switching back after a litte more than three quarters of a mile.
Arnica, bunchberry and vanilla leaf
Fleabane
Often switchbacks allow for a more gradual climb but here the trail launched steeply uphill through small meadows switching back two more times before heading steeply up the open shoulder of Horsepasture Mountain.
It was not a big year for beargrass but if you pick the right year there is an impressive amount along this trail.
Second snake of the day. I wound up seeing three on the day which was two more than other trail users, excluding Heather.
If you look closely you might pick out the blue shirt worn by the only other hiker I encountered.
Mt. Bachelor from the shoulder of Horsepasture Mountain.
Final pitch to the top.
The wildflowers were near peak, and the hillside was literally buzzing with pollinators busy flying from flower to flower. The views extended from Mt. Hood in the north and south to Diamond Peak.
Pollinator photobomb in the upper left.
Diamond Peak to the south.
The Three Sisters and Mt. Bachelor on the horizon.
Lupine, bluehead gilia, paintbrush, and pussytoes?
The former lookout site with Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson behind.
The summit
Survey marker
Diamond Peak from the summit.
The Three Sisters
Mt. Washington, Scott Mountain, Belknap Crater (post), and Black Crater (post).
Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and Three Fingered Jack
I had passed the other gentleman on the switchbacks, but we spoke briefly at the summit. He remarked how it isn’t often that you get both a great view and peak wildflowers on the same hike in Oregon. We both searched out spots with a little shade for a much-needed respite from the heat. While I put on a new pair of socks and had a snack I was able to message with Heather who was almost to the switchbacks. I wandered around the summit for a few minutes admiring the flowers and then got another message from Heather that she was wisely not going to attempt the final steep climb so I headed back to her.
Scarlet gilia
Buckwheat and bluehead gilia
An aster or fleabane
Paintbrush with penstemon in the background.
Butterfly on bluehead gilia
Butterfly and bees
I believe this is a persius duskywing (Erynnis persius)
Vetch?
This outcrop is just slightly lower than the summit.
Cliff beardtongue on the rocks with the Three Sisters and Mt. Bachelor behind.
Phlox
Bastard toadflax
I met Heather at the switchbacks and we headed back together. We stopped at the 4-way junction for a short break which I used to hike 50 yards down to the Horsepasture Trailhead.
The 200′ climb from the 4-way junction to the O’Leary Trail junction was hot, but thankfully that was it as far as climbing went for the day and the remaining 3.5-miles were downhill. The combination of going downhill and a slight breeze provided a little relief to the heat.
Passing the Saddle Trail on the way back.
Eight-spotted forester
Blue-eyed Mary
Horsepasture Mountain
Waterleaf
Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, and Mt. Washington
North and Middle Sister
Larkspur
Anemones and spotted coralroot
Pink pyrola
Clodius parnassian on a tiger lily.
Fireweed
The lower portion of the trail included some madrone trees.
It was right around 90 degrees at the trailhead when we got back at 2:30pm.
I had expected this hike to be a little under 12 miles with approximately 3200′ of elevation gain. My GPS ended up with 12.5 miles, most of which can be attributed to my wandering around at the summit. The detour down to the Horsepasture Trailhead added less than a tenth of a mile.
This was a great hike that only missed spectacular due to how hot it was. The Olallie Trail was in good shape and the climb was extremely well graded. The view from Horsepasture Mountain is a good one and hitting the peak wildflower display only enhances it. We were really shocked to have only seen the one other person, but maybe, just maybe most other people are smarter than we are. With the heat dome expected to continue for several days the 2024 wildflower show will most likely be over quickly, but there is always next year. Happy Trails!
There were some nice rhododendron blooms along the trail.
Spotted coralroot
The first of three crossings of FR 411, this is at the 0.4-mile mark.
Inside-out flower
Starflower
Yellowleaf iris
The trail is narrow at times but well maintiained.
Forest filled with rhododendron.
A closer look at the rhodies.
There were several madrones in the forest.
Little prince’s pine
Sugar sticks
There were a few places where we might have had a view if not for the clouds.
Stonecrop
Passing below some of the rock formations.
Anemones
Bleeding heart
The first small meadow that the trail passed through was full of blue-eyed Mary.
Northern phlox
Coming up on another small meadow.
Subalpine mariposa lily
Beargrass
The fog didn’t help with our trying to find the trail. There was enough room along this section of road that parking and starting the hike from here would be possible.
Back on trail.
Honeysuckle
More northern phlox
This meadow was full of bluehead gilia.
The trail dropped steeply as it rejoined FR 411.
There was no parking room that we could see near this area.
Vanilla leaf along the trail.
Bunchberry
Trillium
We stopped when we spotted something in the trail ahead that looked like it might be an animal. Using the camera to zoom we realized it was a grouse hen with her little chicks.
The hen got up and then the chicks headed into the underbrush. We felt bad having disturbed them, but once they’d moved, we calmly passed by while momma came back to gather her little ones.
This was all beargrass, but none of the plants in this area appeared to be planning on blooming this year.
Hermit thrush
The rocky summit of MacDuff Mountain.
A lot of larkspur.
Subalpine mariposa lilies
Paintbrush and buckwheat
Cinquefoil
A penstemon
The view from the top.
No blue sky that way.
No sign of clearing this way either.
Cliff beardtongue
Woodland-stars
Paintbrush
Hey look, there is another ridge over there.
Ookow just starting to open up.
Steep climb or road walk? We chose the trail again on the way back.
A wetter road now thanks to the rain shower.
Blue sky, it does exist.
The clouds got a late start but eventually started lifting.
From this angle it looks like a statue.
Looking down from some of the switchbacks.
Cougar Reservoir
Pyrola
Sunlight!
I’ve never seen a track this far off.
The track after manually editing it.
wanderingyuncks 