Phantom Ship – wanderingyuncks

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

Discovery Point and Lightning Spring – 09/19/2022

The longest planned hike of our Southern Oregon trip also promised to be the most scenic with nearly two and a half miles being along the rim of Crater Lake. After a couple of days of rain showers (and one night of thunderstorms) Monday was forecast to be partly sunny albeit with a 40% chance of showers. We were hoping for clear views of the lake with just enough clouds to make the sky interesting. We had picked up a 7-day pass on Saturday when we’d driven through Crater Lake National Park and now reentered the Park from Highway 62 to the south and parked near the Rim Village Gift Shop and Cafe.

Our plan was to hike the Discovery Point and Lightning Spring loop described by Sullivan in his “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” (edition 4.2 hike #21). He describes hiking the route counter-clockwise hiking along the rim of the caldera to Discovery Point first but we opted instead for a clockwise loop for two reasons. First was that we wanted to be hiking the rim later in the day when the Sun would hopefully be directly overhead instead of across the lake to the east. The second reason was because Sullivan described the final section of the Dutton Creek Trail as “climbing more seriously…to your car”. Our thought was that it might be more enjoyable to be going down that stretch rather than up.

Before starting the loop we passed by the Gift Shop to check out the morning view of the lake.

Mt. Scott (post) with a bit of a lenticular cloud.

Raven making a landing atop a mountain hemlock.

The Watchman (post), Hillman Peak, and Llao Rock along the western side of the rim.

The view was amazing and aside from the ravens we were about the only people around this early. We got distracted enough by the views that we didn’t catch that the Dutton Creek Trail was located a bit downhill along the West Rim Road and we set off on the Rim Trail toward the Discovery Point Trailhead.

In our defense the topo map on our GPS showed a connector trail further along the Rim Trail (that trail no longer exists) but we didn’t catch our mistake until we’d gone nearly a quarter mile. We turned around and hiked back to the entrance road to Rim Village and hiked downhill to the signed Dutton Creek Trail.
It was by far the most scenic mistake we’ve made while hiking.

Wizard Island and Llao Rock

Mount Scott

We joked that views had been so good maybe we should just end the hike now.

A short distance down the Dutton Creek Trail we came face to face with a pair of bucks.

It was quite the start to the hike and we wondered how anything during the remainder of the hike could top the beginning. We followed the Dutton Creek trail a total of 2.4 miles to the Pacific Crest Trail. The upper portion had indeed been fairly steep before leveling out quite a bit. The forest along the trail was very nice and the trail was in excellent shape.

Dutton Creek was dry.

Blue sky ahead.

Not much left for flowers, this could be a Crater Lake collomia although it’s a little late in the season.

Castle Creek still had some water flowing.

We spotted several piles of hail, possibly from the severe thunderstorms that had been forecast for Saturday night?

Arriving at the PCT.

We turned right on the PCT and followed it for 4.4 fairly level miles to the Lightning Springs Trail. Sullivan described this section of trail as relatively dull but there was enough variety in the scenery to make it enjoyable if not remarkable.

The campsite at the junction was closed due to hazard trees.

Recrossing Castle Creek.

The PCT appeared to be following an old road bed through the park.

Dropping down to Trapper Creek.

PCT crossing of Trapper Creek.

We saw one other deer, a doe in the trail, and otherwise it was a lot of chipmunks and squirrels along with numerous birds.
A red-breasted nuthatch that was toying with me as I tried to get a photo.

Canada jay (grey jay)
Blue sky to the north ahead.

Some blue sky south too with a glimpse of Union Peak (post).

Union Peak

Entering the 2006 Bybee Complex fire scar.

The Watchman. The lookout tower on top was in a cloud after having been clearly visible from rim earlier. We wondered what that might mean for our views when we finally made it back to the rim.

Chipmunk checking us out.

Coneflower remains

Another creek crossing.

Red crossbills at the creek crossing.

There were some pretty ominous looking clouds behind us but no showers yet.

Several white crowned sparrows and at least one junco. We could also hear chickadee calls but I couldn’t find one in this capture.

Despite the ugly clouds behind us there was almost always blue sky ahead.

North Fork Castle Creek

Approaching the junction with the Lightning Springs Trail.

We turned onto the Lightning Springs Trail and headed for the clouds above The Watchman.

This trail climbed gradually along a ridge at the edge of a 2016 fire scar.

Townsend’s solitaire

Union Peak had been swallowed by clouds.

The Watchman with a cloud still hanging on.

Hawk

The base of Union Peak with lots of blue sky around.

A brief stint in full sunlight.

Robin

We were supposed to pass below a small waterfall after 2.4 miles along Lightning Creek but this late in the Summer it was dry.

The trail continued to climb beyond the dry fall arriving at Lightning Springs after another 0.8 miles.
Union Peak nearly free of clouds.

The Watchman still not free.

Mountain bluebird

We detoured a short distance down the trail to Lightning Springs Camp to check out the springs which were not dry.

After visiting the springs we continued another 0.8 miles to West Rim Drive and crossed over to the Rim Trail.

Full view of Union Peak.

And finally a full view of The Watchman.

Conditions were changing quickly and now there was blue sky above The Watchman.

West Rim Drive ahead with the lower portion of Mt. McLoughlin (post) in between the trees to the right.

Mt. McLoughlin

This squirrel put its cone down in case I had something better for it, but we don’t feed the wild animals per Park rules (and Leave No Trace Principles).

We followed the Rim Trail for 2.4 miles back to Rim Village passing Discovery Point at the 1.1 mile mark. The views were spectacular resulting in many, many photos for which we don’t feel the least bit sorry about.

Wizard Island’s cone

Llao Rock

Dock along Wizard Island

The Watchman and Hillman Peak

Garfield Peak to the left with Union Peak to the far right.

Phantom Ship

Mount Scott

Clark’s nutcracker

That blue though!

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Back to where we’d been that morning.

Including our wandering around Rim Village and going the wrong way to start our hike came to 14.4 miles with 2000′ of cumulative elevation gain.

I don’t think we could have asked for better conditions. It only sprinkled for one brief moment and the amount as well as type of clouds added to the beauty instead of hiding it. Add in temperatures that didn’t get much over 50 degrees if that and it was about a perfect day for a hike. We changed our shoes and socks then grabbed lunch in the cafe and did some shopping in the gift shop before heading back to Shady Cove. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Discovery Point and Lightning Spring