Tag: Three Fingered Jack

Marion Lake – 07/06/2026

My brother and his family came for a weeklong visit on the 4th of July from Missouri. When we first talked about the visit Jason mentioned they were hoping to join us on a hike so I’d asked what their ideal hike would entail. The answer was something in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, preferably involving a lake and a waterfall with a length of 5 to 6 miles. I immediately thought of Marion Lake, a hike that includes two lakes, a pair of waterfalls, and views of both Three Fingered Jack and Mt. Jefferson. As an extra bonus our son Dominique would also be joining us.

We had done this hike back in 2014 (post) and returned in 2016 for a much longer loop to the Eight Lakes Basin deeper in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderenss (post). Those visits were prior to the implementation of the Central Cascade Wilderness permit system. Permits are now required from June 15th to October 15th. Overnight permits are required to stay anywhere in the Mt. Jefferson. Three Sisters, and Mt. Washington Wilderness areas while day use permits are currently required at 19 of the 79 trailheads accessing these wilderness areas including the Marion Lake Trailhead. Day use permits are released in two rounds. About 40% of the day use permits for a specific date are released at 7am ten days before that day with the reminder made available two days before the date. I was ready at our computer at 7am on 6/26 and secured the six $1 permits we’d need for our families.

They were good sports and were willing to be on the road at 6am to allow us to be at the trailhead around 7:30am and take advantage of the cooler morning temperatures.

We followed the trail gradually uphill for approximately three quarters of mile to the boundary of the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.

Prince’s pine

Twinflower

Most of the rhododendron were done blooming but a few blossoms remained.

Anemone

There were a few ripe huckleberries along this stretch.

Washington lily

Our sharp-eyed niece spotted this frog along the trail.

Wilderness sign near the boundary.

Sugar sticks, also spotted by Bekkah.

The trail continued its gradual climb which included a couple of switchbacks before arriving at Lake Ann near the 1.6-mile mark.

One of several small springs along the trail.

Wintergreen

Thimbleberry

The outlet of Lake Ann flows beneath the trail here through the porous lava.

The trail passing along Lake Ann.

Lake Ann

After a short break at Lake Ann where we spotted a common merganser on the water and debated whether or not the brown hump on the far side of the lake was a grazing deer or something else (it was something else) we continued on. Just two tenths of a mile later we arrived at a junction where the trail split.

The Marion Lake Trail went left while the Marion Lake Outlet Trail was to the right. We forked right onto the Outlet Trail and in another tenth of a mile came to the unsigned trail to Marion Falls on our right.

We turned right onto this rougher path which crossed over a small ridge then descended to the top of Marion Falls.

This trail had a number of downed trees that required stepping over.

Gnome-plant

Above Marion Falls.

While there was some blowdown over the trail to the top of the falls it isn’t a particularly difficult 0.2-miles. The trail steepens significantly however if you wish to reach the bottom of the waterfall.

The trail disappearing as it drops steeply down the hillside.

Marion Falls

At the bottom of Marion Falls you are also near the top of Gatch Falls. (Some say it is actually just the lower tier of Marion Falls.)

Bachelor Mountain (post) from the top of Gatch Falls.

Monkeyflower

Looking back up the trail from below.

To get a view of Gatch Falls requires an even rougher and steeper descent.

Marion Creek continues tumbling downhill to Gooch Falls (post) a little over two miles downstream.

After admiring the waterfalls, we climbed back up to the top of Marion Falls and took a well-earned snack break before returning to the Marion Lake Outlet Trail.

We followed the trail another half mile around rocky hillsides where my brother’s family spotted a pika as it darted over the rocks and paused briefly before disappearing.

There is plenty of pika habitat such as this in the area.

After the half mile we found ourselves at a junction with the Blue Lake Trail.

At the junction we faced a choice, in order to keep the hike at 6-miles we would have needed to turn left here and hike 0.7-miles along Marion Lake to the Marion Lake Trail and turn left again for 0.4-miles to the junction with the Marion Lake Outlet Trail near Lake Ann. If, however, we wanted to get a view of the wilderness’ namesake, Mt. Jefferson, a detour or two would be needed. By turning right on the Blue Lake Trail for a quarter mile across a talus slope, the top of Mt. Jefferson would be visible across the lake which is what we did.

Better views can be had by going a little further, but because trees line the trail beyond it requires descending steeply to the lake shore which was a little more effort than we had in us today.

After getting a look at Mt. Jefferson we recrossed Marion Creek and hiked along the forested lake shore to the next detour at the day use peninsula.

The only beargrass that had any blossoms left on it.

Three Fingered Jack

Marion Peak is the forested peak to the left and Marion Mountain (post) is the rounded hump just left of center.

We detoured out the peninsula and took a break on some bedrock smoothed by ice age glaciers with a view of the top of Mt. Jefferson.

I continued steeply down the end of the peninsula to get another view of Three Fingered Jack before joining the rest of the group on the rocks.

California tortoiseshell

Creamy stonecrop and beardtongue

Paintbrush

After a nice break we returned to the main trail and continued on to the junction with the Marion Lake Trail.

Vine maple and thimbleberry along the trail.

Signpost at the junction.

We turned left and started the 2.2-mile return to the trailhead.

Lake Ann in the afternoon.

Heading out of the wilderness.

Pearly everlasting at the trailhead.

My GPS registered 6.6-miles for this hike. Total elevation gain for the hike was approximately 975′. My trip to the end of the peninsula added a little over a tenth of a mile.

Everyone survived the hike and more importantly seemed to enjoy it. It was a lot of fun spending the day with family and enjoying God’s creation. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Marion Lake

Tags Blue Lake Trail, gatch falls, hiking, lake ann, Marion Creek, marion falls, marion lake, Marion Lake Outlet Trail, Marion Lake Trail, Marion Lake Trailhead, Marion Mountain, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Oregon, Three Fingered Jack

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Trip report

Round and Square Lakes – 10/9/21

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 14, 2021
1 Comment on Round and Square Lakes – 10/9/21

We were hoping to get a backpacking trip in over the holiday weekend but the forecast called for rain/snow in the mountains starting Saturday night through the rest of the weekend so we opted instead for a day hike instead. The good news was that the forecast for Saturday was for partly to mostly sunny skies so we were hoping for some nice views. We’d chosen a hike to Round and Square Lakes near Three Fingered Jack and the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness which was the shortest of the drives (a little over 1 1/2 hours from Salem) that we had been considering. While we hadn’t been to Round Lake yet we had passed by Square Lake on a loop hike in 2012 (post). Earlier this year on our hike to Santiam Lake (post) we had retraced some the beginning of that loop. For this hike we would also be starting at the Pacific Crest Trailhead at Santiam Pass but would be retracing the final 4.5 miles of the 2012 loop between Booth Lake and the trailhead.

Both Reeder and Sullivan describe hikes to Round and Square Lakes but each of their descriptions are for out and back hikes starting at the Round Lake Trailhead which is closer to the Sisters/Bend area. Starting at Santiam Pass cut off some driving but it did add approximately 5 miles of hiking to our days total. We arrived at the trailhead just in time to catch a bit of color from the sunrise.

Black Crater (post)

After 0.2 miles we turned right at the junction with the Old Summit Trail.

The Old Summit Trail traverses a hillside above Highway 20 through snags left over from the 2003 B & B Complex (Bear and Booth Fires). The lack of larger trees provides plenty of views south to Black Crater, Broken Top, the Three Sisters, Mt. Washington, Hayrick Butte and Hoodoo Butte. The over night clouds were quickly breaking up as we hiked revealing more and more of the mountains.
Black Crater and North Sister

Black Crater, the top of Broken Top, some of the Sisters, and part of Mt. Washington.

Hayrick and Hoodoo

Between Mt. Washington and Hayrick Butte is Scott Mountain (post).

Cache Mountain is the high point furthest to the left.

Broken Top and the Three Sisters

Mt. Washington

The Three Sisters. The summit of South Sister is between North and Middle Sister behind 9321′ Prouty Point.

Black Butte (post)

Near the 2 mile mark we entered the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. The wilderness sign provided a good reference for comparing how much taller the trees were this time versus in 2012.

Mount Jefferson Wilderness sign A different angle from 2012.

Shortly after entering the wilderness we began descending toward Square Lake. Three Fingered Jack was somewhat hidden behind a cloud further to the north.

The only deer we spotted during the hike popped out of some brush below the trail for just a moment before disappearing back into it. As has been the case more often than not this year I did not have my camera at the ready so all I got was one of their white rumps.
One white rump with a black tail amid the ferns near the center of the photo (good luck).

The trail wrapped around the lake past a large campsite to a junction with the Round Lake trail approximately 2.5 miles from the trailhead.

The only paintbrush we would see all day.

The top of Mt. Washington is just visible on the other side of Square Lake.

At the junction we followed the pointer for the Round Lake Trail and continued along Square Lake.

Mt. Washington’s spire again.

A rainbow was trying to form to the west.

We soon left Square Lake and continued through the recovering forest.

Lodgepole pine seeds require fire in order to be released from their tight cones.

The Round Lake Trail is just about 2 miles long running between the junction and the Round Lake Trailhead to the east. Several maps show the trail passing near Long Lake Lake along the way. It does not but rather veers away form that lake. It may have been an older pre-fire alignment but Reeder mentions this discrepancy in the map and warns “don’t even bother trying to find it unless you’ve got lots of time and patience”. I’ll be honest and say this sounded like a little bit of a challenge so when we were able to spot the western end of Long Lake we decided to make an attempt for it.
Our first sighting of Long Lake (zoomed in).

Using our GPS and a paper map as backup we angled cross country toward the lake which quickly was hidden from sight. There were plenty of downed trees to climb over or around and one line of snowbrush to push through but we also were able to follow some game trails which helped us find ways through the obstacles. It was also evident that the area around the lake can be pretty wet and probably muddy meaning getting as close as we did probably wouldn’t be possible at other times.

We reached the western end of the lake after three tenths of a mile. It took less than 15 minutes but without a map and some route finding skills we wouldn’t advise it.

Ducks taking off from Long Lake.

Any thoughts of walking around the north side of the lake quickly vanished when we saw how dense the vegetation and downed trees were.

We did however return to the Round Lake Trail by bearing NE. It took a little over 21 minutes to find the trail just over a half mile from the lake.

This is one of the areas that we could see getting pretty muddy/wet.

Rainbow

The Round Lake Trail just on the other side of the downed tree.

Long Lake is back down that way somewhere.

We turned right and continued east on the Round Lake Trail.
Back on the Round Lake Trail.

Black Butte shedding the morning clouds.

The top of Three Fingered Jack behind some thin clouds.

Green Ridge (post) in the distance with a little smoke rising from the Metolious Basin where the Forest Service had ignited a prescribed burn over the preceding two days.

A better look at Three Fingered Jack.

First glimpse of Round Lake.

The trail descended to a small parking area at the trailhead next to the Wilderness Lakes Retreat.

We’d seen some maps showing a trail around the north side of the lake through the retreat to some camp sites on the eastern end but we weren’t sure if the retreat was private property or if it was okay to hike through so we opted to follow Forest Road 600 from the trailhead around the south side of the lake.

When we spotted a path heading down off the road we took it and made our way down to the lake shore.

The partial rainbow returned as we took a break at the lake.
IMG_5923_stitch

We eventually pulled ourselves away from Round Lake and headed back toward Square Lake. We were feeling a little moisture in the air and based on the clouds ahead we were expecting to find ourselves in some misty fog at best by the time we made it back to the Old Summit Trail.

Starting to look kind of grey.

A mountain bluebird adding a splash of blue to the green backdrop.

Clouds over Square Lake.

A few scarlet gilia blossoms.

Instead of heading straight back onto the Old Summit Trail we turned right in order to revisit Booth Lake. From Square Lake the Old Summit Trail switchbacked uphill gaining 400′ in the next mile to a gap between a rock outcrop and a rocky hill. We remembered seeing a small lake amid the rocks over on the opposite hill and as we climbed this time we began thinking that it might be possible to get to the unnamed lake.
The unnamed lake is about halfway up the far hillside.

Black Butte and Long Lake from the trail.

Heading toward Three Fingered Jack we got back under blue skies.

Square Lake still under a clouds,

The unnamed lake that drew our attention.

Unnamed small lake in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Similar view from 2012.

We stopped momentarily at the gap discussing what route we would take if we did try and reach the lake. I was pretty certain I wanted to give it a shot but I decided to wait until we were headed back in case I changed my mind after reaching Booth Lake.
The trail at the gap. It was grey and cloudy to the west.

Still at the gap, it was blue skies to the east.

Beyond the gap the trail climbed just a bit arriving at its high point above Booth Lake in 0.3 miles.
There is Three Fingered Jack.

A good look at Green Ridge.

A lupine that was late to the party.

Booth Lake

Heather opted to stay at the high point instead of visiting the lake which was roughly 0.4 miles away and 150′ below. I shuffled down the trail and made my way to the familiar sandy lake shore.

It didn’t look that much different than it had in 2012.
Three Fingered Jack from Booth Lake

I returned to Heather and we started back toward the gap. I was still planning on trying to reach the off trail lake but Heather was not. She had decided that she would only attempt it if the Three Sisters had been uncovered from the clouds. I went ahead of her and left the trail at the gap working my way up around rocks and over downed trees while climbing up a semi-steep slope. I trusted the deer tracks that I was trying to follow and sure enough made it to the little lake.

The trail cut on the far hillside.

The rock cliffs holding the water on the eastern side made for some easy walking and great views down to Square Lake.
Black Butte, Long Lake, and part of Square Lake.

Square Lake along with Broken Top and the Three Sisters (Mt. Washington was hiding in the clouds still).

Part of the rock ledge.

Three Fingered Jack had once again disappeared.

As I was admiring the view I thought was hearing things but as I was making my way back along the ledge I spotted Heather on a small hill on the opposite side of the lake. The Three Sisters had been visible so she stuck to her word and had followed me up.
Where’s Heather.

After satisfying our desire for adventure we returned to the trail and headed back to Square Lake where we made a quick stop at the campsite.

20211009_130751

We spent the return hike watching the clouds almost clear from Mt. Washington just to reform over around its top.
20211009_132540 View climbing away from Square Lake.

Three Fingered Jack and Square Lake Similar view in 2012.

Square Lake 2012

Finally clear!

Hayrick Butte and Hoodo as we neared the trailhead.

This hike was a lot of fun with some new sights and some familiar but different sights. I wound up doing 14.8 miles according to the GPS and although no climbs were particularly long the up and down nature of the hike provided approximately 2000′ of cumulative elevation gain.

Tags Booth Lake, hiking, long lake, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Old Summit Trail, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, round lake, Round Lake Trail, Round Lake Trailhead, Santiam Pass Trailhead, Square Lake, Three Fingered Jack

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Trip report

Berley and Santiam Lakes- 07/03/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 7, 2021
8 Comments on Berley and Santiam Lakes- 07/03/2021

For the Fourth of July weekend we had originally planned on a trip to Central Oregon but the drought conditions that were exasperated by the recent heat wave had us reconsidering not being home to guard against rogue illegal fireworks (a house in our neighborhood lost a fence and tree last year on the 4th). Our decision was made final when, following the heat wave, mostly dry thunder storms passed over the Ochoco Mountains where some of our hikes were planned. Lighting caused fires have kept firefighters busy since then as the race to contain the fires that are still cropping up from that storm system. We turned to Plan B, which was in part a modified Plan A, and spent the weekend hiking in the Central Cascades. On Saturday we stuck to our originally planned hike to Berley and Santiam Lakes but instead of continuing on to Bend afterward we drove back home.

This hike is covered in Matt Reeder’s “101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region” and provided us an opportunity to revisit some places as well as discover some new ones. The hike starts at the Pacific Crest Trailhead along Highway 20 at Santiam Pass.

For now this is one of the trailheads where a Central Cascade Wilderness Day Use Permit is not required but a NW Forest Pass ($5/day or $30/annual) is, as well as completing a free self-issue permit. Note that for overnight trips a Central Cascade Wilderness Permit is needed for any visits to the Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters or Mt. Washington Wilderness areas.

We had started another hike here in October of 2012 when we hiked to the base of Three Fingered Jack then returned on a loop past Martin, Booth, and Square Lakes (post). We were interested to not only see the area during a different season but also to see what had changed in nearly 9 years. This was particularly interesting to us due to the area having been burned badly in the 2003 B&B Complex and this would give us an idea of how the forest was recovering. Given the huge swaths that were burned in the September 2020 wildfires this might give us a small frame of reference for what to expect for some of the areas. The first thing that we noticed was that post fire trees seemed larger than we remembered which was confirmed by comparing some pictures of the Pacific Crest Trail junction with the Old Summit Trail 0.2 miles from the trailhead.
Trail sign at the junction on 10/13/2012.

Trail sign at the junction on 07/03/2021.

What we didn’t really notice though was just how many of the snags were now missing.
Entering the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness in 2012 (0.3 miles from the TH).

Entering the wilderness in 2021.

We followed the PCT a total of 1.2 miles to a junction with the Santiam Lake Trail. The view to the south was as spectacular as we had remembered with several Cascade Mountains in view along with several distinctive lesser peaks.
Cache Mountain, Black Crater (post), Tam McArthur Rim & Broken Top (post), North & Middle Sister, Mt. Washington, and Hayrick Butte (flat top on the right).

To the north the top of Three Fingered Jack was occasionally visible.

There were a few more flowers in bloom now than there had been in October.
A thistle

Penstemon

Bleeding heart

Pussytoes

California stickseed

Another penstemon

Shortly after passing a small unnamed lake we arrived at the junction.

Mountain bluebird by the lake.

We turned left onto the Santiam Lake Trail at the junction striking off on new to us trail. The Santiam Lake Trail headed slightly downhill to the north passing a series of small ponds/lakes before making a sweeping turn to the west then meeting up with the now abandoned Santiam Lodge Trail (coming uphill on the left) one mile from the PCT.

There was a good amount of scarlet gilia blooming along this section of trail.

Three Fingered Jack

One of the ponds.

Queen’s cup

Another pond with Maxwell Butte (post) behind to the right.

Unnamed lake along the trail with Maxwell Butte behind.

Lupine

Dark-eyed junco

Sub-alpine mariposa lilies

Woodpecker

The view south.

Seasonal pond

A half mile beyond the abandoned trail (there was part of a sign still hanging, partially hidden on a tree) we came to an unsigned fork.

We admittedly hadn’t read Matt’s hike description recently and had conveniently forgotten that there were no maintained trails to the Berley Lakes and this unmarked fork was where he would have had us turn. It wasn’t shown on the GPS map and since we hadn’t bothered to re-familiarize ourselves with the hike we continued on the Santiam Lake Trail but were still looking for the trail to Berley Lakes.

We crossed the nearly dry bed of Lost Lake Creek (There was enough water around to host a healthy population of mosquitos though.) and continued through a meadow filled with lupine into some unburned forest.

Beargrass

The combined presence of the trees and more water in Lost Lake Creek (which the trail was now following) was a perfect recipe for even more mosquitos. We hustled along as quickly a possible to try and keep as much of our own blood as possible.

Recent snow melt is another recipe for mosquitos.

Another creek crossing.

Shooting star

Mountain heather. Typically if we see this blooming we expect there to be mosquitos.

Fortunately the creek soon faded out in an open rocky landscape where the heat of the sun kept the buggers away and we were able to slow down a bit.

A sulphur

Alpine false dandelion

One of several snow patches at the tree line.

Nearing the end of the opening.

More snow in the trees.

A checkerspot

By the time we’d reached the open area it was obvious we had missed our turn and should have taken the fork we’d seen since we were now past the Berley Lakes. That was fine though as the original plan had been to visit those lakes first and hook up with the Santiam Lake Trail beyond Lower Berley Lake then continue on to Santiam Lake and return via the Santiam Lake Trail. Our new plan was to visit Santiam Lake then find the route to Lower Berley Lake, visit it, then check out Upper Berley Lake and return to the Santiam Lake Trail at the fork. Beyond the open plain the trail began a 250′ descent through more unburned forest to Santiam Lake.

Trees & melting snow = more mosquitos.

Not Santiam Lake but a very pretty unnamed lake just to the left of the trail approximately 0.4 miles from Santiam Lake.

Not sure what type this is but the orange on the wing was pretty.

We turned off the Santiam Lake Trail at a “No Campfires” sign and followed a familiar path down to the lake.

It had been almost 11 years since we visited this lake. On our previous visit we had come up the Santiam Lake Trail from the Duffy Lake Trail (post).

Mt. Jefferson behind Red Butte

Duffy Butte on the left.

Three Fingered Jack

Paintbrush, shooting stars, and buttercups.

We set off to hike around the west side of the lake but we encountered quite a bit of recent blowdown and decided it was a little more trouble than it was worth.

Just one of several large uprooted trees along the shore.

Taking a break along the shore and enjoying the view would have been nice but the mosquitos weren’t interested in letting us sit peacefully so when we came to the third bunch of downed trees we called it good and headed back for the Santiam Lake Trail. We followed it back to the open plain where the mosquitos hadn’t been bad and stopped to study the map in Reeder’s book (still weren’t smart enough to take the time to re-read it though) and we could see that from this end his track showed him heading for Lower Berley Lake just before a topographic feature. We made our way across the plain where butterflies were busy flying from plant to plant.

The “topographic feature” ahead on the right where we planned on turning for Lower Berley Lake.

Mountain heather along the trail, it was warm and sunny enough that the mosquitos weren’t as bad this time by.

Threeleaf lewisia

Getting closer to the hill where we planned on turning.

California tortoiseshell butterflies in the bed of Lost Lake Creek.

Later when we finally did read the hike description Reeder mentioned a cairn marking a user trail but we didn’t notice any cairn (and admittedly may have turned too soon) but we spotted what appeared to be faint tread along a hillside above a dry stream bed and took a right onto it.

The track on the map showed the route on the south side of the lake but this trail was leading to the south side of Lower Berley Lake. It led past a couple of campsites to some rocks above the lake.

Three Fingered Jack from the rocks.

We picked our way down through the rocks to the lake shore and followed a user trail west until more downed tress forced us to climb back up above the rocks.

More tortoiseshells

A butterfly photo bomb

Once we were back above the lake we came across what looked like another user trail leading away from it.

We thought it might be a side trail to Upper Berley Lake so we turned right on it but soon realized that we were following a dry bed instead of a trail.

The bed was popular with the butterflies.

A GPS check showed we were heading too much to the NNE and needed to be NNW so we left the bed and used the GPS units to find Upper Berley Lake, but not before startling a doe.
Cross country to Upper Berley Lake, the doe was in this meadow and headed in the direction of the patch of snow at the far end.

Upper Berley Lake

Reeder mentions a view of Three Fingered Jack from this lake as well but we were on the wrong side of it for that. The lake shore where we were was pretty thick with small trees so we would have needed to back track to make our way around for a view but we decided to save that for another time. We took a slightly more direct route back toward Lower Berley Lake and found what seemed to us a bit of a random Day Use Only sign.
We wound up finding the same “user trail” and followed it down to the lower lake.

What we could see was a clear trail heading south past the lake. We went down to the lake shore to see if we could pick something up since the track in the book showed it at the SW edge of the lake. We couldn’t make out any clear trail but that could have been because it was covered in butterflies.
California tortoiseshell butterflies along Lower Berley Lake.

Three Fingered Jack and about a half dozen butterflies.

We did another comparison of the track in the guidebook and the topographic map on our GPS units and came to the conclusion that we were in the right spot and just needed to hike over a saddle between two hillsides. As we made our way up we found an obvious trail.
The hillside on the right was rocky.

The trail dropping down from the saddle with Mt. Washington and the North Sister ahead.

This trail was at times easy to follow and at others non-existent.

Just under three quarters of a mile from Lower Berley Lake we ran into three hikers heading for the lake which we took as a good sign. Just a short distance later we came to the dry channel of Lost Lake Creek.

It was hard to tell where the “trail” crossed or where it was on the far side. Reeder’s track showed the alignment converging with the Santiam Lake Trail at an gradual angle but we could see that we were only about a tenth of a mile from that trail as the crow flies so we abandoned all attempts at following the user trail. We headed straight for the Santiam Lake Trail and found it without much difficulty.
Found it!

We were a tenth or two of a mile from the actual junction which wound up working in our favor. We had rejoined the Santiam Lake Trail just north of the seasonal pond where there were now dozens of butterflies hanging out and this time they weren’t all the same types.

We made our way back to the PCT then followed it south back to the trailhead but not before stopping at a viewpoint for one last look at the mountains.
Yellow beetle on lupine.

Orange agoseris

Back at the PCT.

Bumble bees on penstemon.

Cicada in the grass.

Black Crater, Broken Top, North & Middle Sister, Mt. Washington, Hayrick Butte, and Hoodoo Butte from the viewpoint.

Three Fingered Jack from the viewpoint.

Track for our 12.9 mile, 1300′ elevation gain hike

After a great day of hiking we spent the evening with my Grandma and parents. It was a great start to the holiday weekend. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Berley & Santiam Lakes

Tags Berley Lakes, butterflies, cascade mountains, hiking, Lower Berley Lake, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Santiam Lake, Santiam Lake Trail, Three Fingered Jack, Upper Berley Lake

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Trip report

Maxwell Butte – 8/12/2019

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 19, 2019
13 Comments on Maxwell Butte – 8/12/2019

We spent another vacation doing day hikes from home as we continue to take care of our elderly cats. It has created a delay in our plans to visit all of the designated wilderness areas in Oregon, but it also has given us a chance to redo some hikes that didn’t go as planned the first time around and hit a few other hikes sooner than planned.

The first hike of the week was a repeat of a cloudy September 2015 climb to the summit of Maxwell Butte (post). We’d had no views whatsoever that day so a sunny forecast gave us the green light to try again. Once again we parked in the paved Maxwell Butte Sno-Park lot instead of driving the additional .4 miles of gravel road to the actual Maxwell Butte Trailhead.

From the official trailhead the Maxwell Butte Trail climbed gradually through a nice forest entering the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness after 1.75 miles. It was sad to find that the unique wilderness sign was missing.

First wilderness sign we'd seen that looked like this The wilderness sign in 2015.

A little more than two and a quarter miles from the trailhead we arrived at a junction with the Lava Lakes Trail near Twin Lakes.

There was significantly more water in the lakes this time around (and better visibility too).

Low water levels at Twin Lakes 2015

Low water at Twin Lakes 2015

Our presence raised a ruckus from a Stellar’s jay.

Twin Lakes 2015

One the way back by later (after the Sun had moved out of the way) we stopped at the lakes to get a photo of Maxwell Butte.

We followed the Maxwell Butte Trail past the lakes as it began to climb up and around the butte. Closer to the lakes we passed a few remaining flowers and some ripe huckleberries.
Penstemon

Lousewort

Scarlet gilia

A couple of short (and late) beargrass plumes.

As the trail got closer to the butte we passed through some meadows and open rocky areas where we kept on the lookout for pikas.

This looked like prime pika habitat to us.

The trail made its way to the south side of Maxwell Butte where our first good mountain view was of Diamond Peak beyond Sand Mountain which we had visited earlier in the year (post).

The trail steepened a bit as it made its way up the south side of Maxwell Butte via a series of switchbacks.

Butterflies and increasingly better views helped keep our minds off the climb.

Hogg Rock (near left), flat topped Hayrick Butte next to Hoodoo Butte, Mt. Washington with Broken Top behind left and the Three Sisters behind right.

Five and a quarter miles from the sno-park we arrived at the summit of Maxwell Butte where a fire lookout once stood.

The view now included Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood to the north.

Mt. Hood in the distance to the left of Mt. Jefferson.

Less than three miles away as the crow flies Three Fingered Jack dominated the view east.

Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack with Santiam Lake in the forest below.

The view south.

Broken Top, Mt. Washington, and the Three Sisters with Hayrick Butte in the forefront.Santiam Lake

Duffy Lake (post)

Mowich Lake

After a nice long break taking in the views and naming as many of the lakes dotting the forest below as we could we headed back down. We took a quick detour to check out Maxwell Butte’s crater.

Paintbrush in the crater.

There were quite a few more butterflies out as we made our way back and we managed to spot a pika gathering greens in the rocky area we had thought looked like a good spot for one.

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Pika

Golden-mantled ground squirrel in the same rocky area as the pika.

It had been a successful do-over getting the views we’d missed out on before. Round trip the hike was 10.6 miles with a little over 2500′ of elevation gain. It was a solid start to what we hoped would be six straight days of hiking. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Maxwell Butte 2019

Tags butterflies, hiking, maxwell butte, maxwell butte sno-park, Maxwell Butte Trail, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Oregon, Pika, Santiam Lake, Three Fingered Jack, Twin Lakes

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Trip report

Temple Lake and Marion Mountain – 7/25/19

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 29, 2019
4 Comments on Temple Lake and Marion Mountain – 7/25/19

A day after taking my brother and his family to Opal Creek (post) we were back on the trails with a visit to Temple Lake and Marion Mountain. This is another hike take from Matt Reeder’s “101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region”. The hike starts from the Pine Ridge Trailhead

There were a few mosquitoes waiting for us a the trailhead so we applied a bit of deet and set off through the forest for .2 miles to a 4-way junction.

From the junction the Pine Ridge Trail continued straight while the Turpentine Trail departed on the right and to the left was a trail to the Boy Scout owned Camp Pioneer (the camp is private so do not take this trail or any others heading left between the trailhead and the junction).

We continued on the Pine Ridge Trail past a unique Mt. Jefferson Wilderness sign.

The trail dropped from the junction to cross a dry creek bed before climbing around a ridge and dropping again.

We took a brief off-trail detour to visit one of several lakes in the area.

We returned to the trail and continued on to the junction with the Temple Lake Trail which was approximately 2 miles from the trailhead.

We decided to save the lake for later in the day in hopes that the mosquitoes would be less active. Continuing on the Pine Ridge Trail we passed through some sections of forest burned in the massive 2003 B&B Complex.
Turpentine Peak

Washington lily

Unburned forest

Mt. Jefferson from the Pine Ridge Trail.

At the four mile mark we arrived at the signed Marion Mountain Trail.

We turned right here and began to climb up a ridge to Marion Mountain. A little less than three quarters of a mile up we came to a cinder viewpoint.
Mt. Jefferson and Marion Lake (post)

Three Fingered Jack

The view here was good but just a tenth of a mile further the trail led out to the former site of the Marion Mountain Lookout where the view was even better.
The cinder viewpoint from Marion Mountain.

Mt. Hood in the distance with Mt. Jefferson, and Marion Lake.

Mt. Hood and Dynah-Mo Peak

Three Fingered Jack

Tops of the Three Sisters.

Coffin Mountain (post)

We had a nice view of the crest between Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack where we could make out North and South Pyramid Peaks (post).
South Cinder Peak is the high point along the ridge.

We sat on the rocks enjoying the breeze which was keeping us cool and mosquito free. When we finally did leave we decided to follow a faint path the continued out along the ridge to the south of Marion Mountain. The open forest made cross country travel fairly easy.

We continued along the ridge entering the B&B scar again where there were more obstacles.

We wound up going a little under a mile along the narrowing ridge until it dipped to a saddle under forested Marion Peak. We didn’t see any reason to lose any elevation and have to gain it back so we declared victory. The view here was better yet with more of the Three Sisters and Mt. Washington visible.
The saddle that we didn’t want to drop down to.

Three Fingered Jack with the Three Sisters and Mt. Washington in the gap.

The Three Sisters and Mt. Washington beyond Red Butte (post)

Jenny and Melis Lake

Marion Mountain at the end of the ridge.

Bear Point (post) and Dynah-Mo Peak with Mt. Hood in the background.

Turpentine Peak along the ridge.

Black Butte (post) on the far opposite side of the crest.

In addition to the views there were a few flowers along the ridge and Heather spotted a Northern Alligator Lizard but it ran off before we could get a photo.
Stonecrop

Prince’s Pine

Penstemon

Washington lily

We headed back down the ridge to Marion Mountain and then returned to the Pine Ridge Trail where we turned left. When we got back to the Temple Lake Trail we turned right and headed downhill.

The half mile trail crossed a dry creek before reaching the lake.

It wasn’t overly buggy which allowed us to admire the view of Mt. Jefferson from the lake and check out the campsites.

Dragon fly

While Heather was looking at one of the sites a western toad popped its head out of a hole.

I’m not sure who was watching who as the toad wound up coming all the way out while we stood there.

We kept our distance (thanks 30x zoom) and headed back up to the Pine Ridge Trail. Aside from a garter snake sighting there was no excitement on the return trip, just a nice forest walk.

With our off-trail exploring the hike came in at 11.6 miles and a little under 2000′ of elevation gain. The off-trail was just the right balance of challenging but not frustratingly difficult. It was a lot easier than what we had done the day we visited Bear Point earlier in the week for sure. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Temple Lake and Marion Mountain

Tags 101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region, hiking, marion lake, Marion Mountain, Matt Reeder, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Oregon, Pine Ridge Trail, Pine Ridge Trailhead, Red Butte, South Pyramid Peak, Temple Lake, Three Fingered Jack, Western Toad

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Throwback Thursday Trip report

Throwback Thursday – Three Fingered Jack

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 17, 2018
6 Comments on Throwback Thursday – Three Fingered Jack

This week’s Throwback Thursday hike is a 13.5 mile loop taken on 10/13/12 partly along the Pacific Crest Trail in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. We started our hike at the Pacific Crest Trailhead near Santiam Pass along Highway 22. Our plan for the day was to follow the PCT to the SW flank of Three Fingered Jack then return on a loop by leaving the PCT on the way back above Martin Lake and hiking cross country past that lake to the Summit Lake Trail.

We arrived just before daylight and were rewarded with some amazing sights as we waited for enough light to start hiking. Three Fingered Jack/PCT trailhead

Morning from the trailhead

Mt. Washington in the morning from the trailhead

Mt. Washington

The trailhead is located in the fire scar of the 2003 B & B Fire. One of those B’s is for Booth Lake which we planned on visiting as we returned on the Summit Trail. Pacific Crest Trail

Pacific Crest Trail

A short distance after passing the junction with the Summit Trail the PCT entered the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. Entering the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness on the Pacific Crest Trail

From the wilderness boundary Three Fingered Jack was only about 3 miles away but was hidden behind the rise of the land. There were plenty of views to be had to the south though. Hayrick Butte and Hoodoo

Hayrick Butte and the Hoodo Ski Area

View from the Pacific Crest Trail

Mt. Washington and the North and Middle Sisters

We spent a lot of time looking over our shoulders as the views only got better as we made the gradual climb toward Three Fingered Jack. Black Crater, Broken Top, the North & Middle Sister and Mt. Washington

Mt. Washington

North and Middle Sister

Broken Top

Three Fingered Jack finally came into view when the trail leveled out on a plateau.

Three Fingered Jack

At the 1.25 mile mark we arrived at a junction with the Santiam Lake Trail. Pacific Crest Trail junction with the Santiam Lake Trail

We continued on the PCT through the silver snags of the B & B Fire which were a surprisingly nice contrast to the bright red Fall huckleberry leaves. Pacific Crest Trail

Contrasting colors in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness

Another impressive view came two miles from the Santiam Trail junction. Three Fingered Jack

Three Fingered Jack

View from the Pacific Crest Trail

Looking south

The PCT had steepened a bit as it climbed to this view on a ridge which it now followed into green trees. Three Fingered Jack

Pacific Crest Trail

The ridge passed above Booth and Martin Lakes which lay to the east. Martin and Booth Lakes and Black Butte

Black Butte (post) beyond Martin and Booth Lakes

Just under a half mile from the viewpoint we passed a spot along the ridge where we would head cross-country on the way back. We were still gaining elevation which gave us a view of Diamond Peak even further south. View from the Pacific Crest Trail

Diamond Peak

We also noticed that the stubborn Pole Creek Fire was still putting up a smoke column from the Three Sisters Wilderness. Black Crater, Broken Top, smoke from the Pole Creek Fire, Mt. Bachelor, The Three Sisters, Mt. Washington, The Husband, Big Lake, Hayrick Butte, Scott Mountain, and Diamond Peak

Broken Top and the Pole Creek Fire

To the west we spotted Lower Berley Lake.

Three Fingered Jack disappeared again for a bit but not long after crossing a rocky section of the ridge the PCT rounded a corner and Three Fingered Jack came back into view.

Continuing on just a couple tenths of a mile more brought us to even better views of the volcano’s western face. Three Fingered Jack

A climbers trail was clearly visible heading up toward the summit. Three Fingered Jack

We followed the PCT to the junction with the climbers trail which was approximately 5.5 miles from the trailhead. Three Fingered Jack

It was tempting to head up the path but apparently only for me. Heather and Dominique were good turning around here so they took a short break as I went up a very short distance. The trail was fairly steep and the loose rock made it more effort than I was willing to expend so I quickly returned and we began our hike back.

On the way back along the PCT we spotted a trail heading off to the right (SW) just over half a mile from the climbers trail. This short spur led to a rock outcrop with spectacular view. View from the Pacific Crest Trail

From here we could see at least a part of 7 Cascade Peaks: Broken Top, Mt. Bachelor, All three of the Three Sisters, Mt. Washington, and Diamond Peak. Black Crater, Broken Top, Mt. Bachelor, the Three Sisters and Mt. Washington

From left to right: Broken Top, Mt. Bachelor, North Sister, the summit of South Sister, Middle Sister, and Mt. Washington.

Scott Mountain and Diamond Peak

Diamond Peak

After a nice long break soaking in the view we continued south on the PCT past the rock section along the ridge. Pacific Crest Trail

Shortly after the rocks we headed downhill at a low point along the ridge into the least steep looking gully we had seen on the way by earlier. Off-trail route to Martin Lake from the Pacific Crest Trail

The route was fairly steep but the good news was that the lake was at the bottom of a bowl so we basically just needed to stay heading downhill and we would by default find Martin Lake. The trees were sparse enough to make travel easy and we soon found ourselves along a fern covered hillside. Cross country route from the Pacific Crest Trail to Martin Lake

Fern covered hillside near Martin Lake

This was our first real foray into off-trail travel but between the map, GPS and knowing that the lake was at the bottom of the bowl we had no trouble finding the water after traveling approximately .4 miles. Martin Lake

Several deer had been on the far side of Martin Lake but ran as we emerged from the trees. They had been in the area of an old trail that ran from the Summit Trail to Martin Lake but had not been maintained since the B & B Fire.

Martin Lake

We made our way around the south shore of the lake to its east end hoping to pick up the trail we had seen from the west end. Martin Lake

The trail was basically non-existent though. Cross country route to the Summit Trail

The good news was we knew that the Summit Trail was due east from Martin Lake and to make things easier so was Black Butte. We used the 6436′ butte as our guide as we traveled the half mile from Martin Lake to the Summit Lake Trail.

We were a little concerned that the Summit Lake Trail might be hard to spot so I occasionally checked the GPS to make sure it wasn’t showing that we’d crossed it. We wound up having no problem identifying the dusty Summit Lake Trail though and turned right onto it. After a quarter mile we took a short spur to the right to Booth Lake.

We were joined by an eagle who landed in the snags on the far side of the lake. Eagle on the far side of Booth Lake

From the shore Three Fingered Jack was visible peaking over a ridge. Three Fingered Jack from Booth Lake

There was a decent breeze which created some eerie sounds as it passed through the dead trees. We left Booth Lake and continued south on the Summit Lake trail which remained in the B & B scar for the rest of the hike. Three Fingered Jack

Mt. Jefferson Wilderness along the Summit Trail

Colorful hillside along the Summit Trail

The trail climbed gradually for 3/4 of a mile to a saddle before descending more steeply for a little over a mile to Square Lake. Square Lake, Broken Top, North & Middle Sister and Mt. Washington

As we began descending the clouds over the North Sister formed into an interesting shape. Cool cloud formation passing over the North Sister

We took another short break at the lake where the only view we had was east to Black Butte. Square Lake

Square Lake

We followed a pointer for the Santiam Pass Trailhead at the junction with the Round Lake Trail. Trail sign for the Santiam Pass Trailhead

It was roughly 2.2 miles back to the PCT from Square Lake. The trail climbed away from the lake gaining a final view of Three Fingered Jack to the north. Three Fingered Jack and Square Lake

We then passed along a hillside covered in golden ferns with decent views of Mt. Washington but an increase in clouds and slight drizzle began obscuring the views of the other mountains. On the way back to the Santaim Pass Trailhead

Mt. Washington

After completing the loop and arriving back at the trailhead we drove to my parents house near Bend. They were away for the weekend but the house was being watched carefully by their guard owl. Owl in Central Oregon after the hike

We had another hike planned for the next day in the Three Sisters Wilderness so we spent the night at their house and set off the next day on what would become known as “The hike that shall not be named“. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Three Fingered Jack

Tags B & B Fire, Booth Lake, Hayrick Butte, hiking, Hoodoo, Martin Lake, Mt. Washington, Oregon, owl, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, pole creek fire, Round Lake Trail, Santiam Lake Trail, santiam pass, Santiam Pass Trailhead, Square Lake, Summit Lake Trail, Three Fingered Jack

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Throwback Thursday Trip report

Throwback Thursday – Duffy Lake

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date February 23, 2017
8 Comments on Throwback Thursday – Duffy Lake

We’re going all the way back to July 28, 2010 for this weeks throwback hike. This was our first visit to the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness as well as the first time we attempted an off-trail scramble. We started at the Duffy Lake Trailhead taking the Duffy Lake Trail toward Duffy Lake.

Duffy Lake Trail

The trail followed along the North Santiam River which was running real low but not yet dry for the season.

Wildflowers along the North Santiam River

North Santiam River

We passed the a junction with the Turpentine Trail at the 1.5 mile mark and crossed the river just over a mile later before reaching another junction in a meadow near Duffy Lake. Although we couldn’t see the lake from there Duffy Butte rose above the trees.

Duffy Butte

A number of trails were present in the Duffy Lake area. The first junction after crossing the river was with the Maxwell Butte Trail which forked to the right. Before reaching Duffy Lakes outlet creek we took the next fork to thw right which was a short connector trail to the Santiam Lake Trail which we then turned right on following it for about 3/4 of a mile through wildflower meadows to Santiam Lake and a great view of Three Fingered Jack.

Santiam Lake Trail

Three Fingered Jack and Santiam Lake

Three Fingered Jack from Santiam Lake

After visiting the lake shore we headed back the way we had come for .6 miles then turning right on the Dixie Lakes Trail at a pointer for the Eight Lakes Basin.

Trail sign at the Dixie Lakes Trail

This 1.8 mile trail would lead us pass the small Dixie Lakes before joining the Blue Lake Trail. Much of the trail passed through forest burned in the massive 2003 B&B Fire.

A Dixie Lake

South Dixie Lake

A Dixie Lake

North Dixie Lake

Beargrass

Junction with the Blue Lake Trail

The trail junction was near Alice Lake which was where our off-trail scramble up Red Butte would start.

Red Butte

Alice Lake

Being our first off-trail experience we weren’t exactly sure what we were supposed to be looking for but we knew that the route started on the west side of the lake and headed up the butte. It was quite the adventure. Just when we thought we might be following a use trail we’d lose it. Some of the butte had been burned in the fire so there was plenty of downed trees and limbs to navigate. The good news with that was we knew we could follow the edge of the burn downhill and we’d wind up back on the trail near Alice Lake so we weren’t too concerned with getting lost. As we neared the summit of Red Butte the vegetation began to give way to more and more cinder where it was much easier to pick out the use trail.

Snow on Red Butte

Looking down from the summit we could see little Alice Lake below.

Alice Lake from Red Butte

To the south we had a great view of Three Fingered Jack and beyond that loomed Mt. Washington, North Sister, Middle Sister, and The Husband.

Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington, The Three Sisters and The Husband

The Three Sisters and Mt. Washington

Mt. Washington in front of the North & Middle Sister (with the summit of South Sister behind them all)

Around to the north was Mt. Jefferson.

Mt. Jefferson

Just to the SW of Red Butte was Duffy Butte and Mowich Lake.

Mowich Lake and Duffy Butte

Mowich Lake

We had a much easier time following the use path on the way down and successfully completed our first scramble. We turned right when we arrived back at the Blue Lake Trail and followed it for a mile to the southern end of Mowich Lake where we could look back across the water to Red Butte.

Mowich Lake

Another 3/4 miles along the trail brought us a junction with the Santiam Lake and Duffy Lake Trails.

Trail junction near Duffy Lake

We took a moment to visit Duffy Lake and Duffy Butte.

Duffy Butte from Duffy Lake

We walked along the lake to its outlet where we picked up the Duffy Lake Trail and headed back toward the trailhead. A nice lollipop loop with a couple of side trips to Santiam Lake and up Red Butte the total distance was a little over 13 miles with approx 2000′ elevation gain. Happy Trails!

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/albums/72157632953676368

Tags Alice Lake, Blue Lake Trail, Dixie Lakes, Dixie Lakes Trail, Duffy Butte, Duffy Lake, Duffy Lake Trail, hiking, Mowich Lake, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, North Santiam River, Oregon, Red Butte, Santiam Lake, Santiam Lake Trail, Three Fingered Jack

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Washington Area Oregon Trip report

Belknap Crater

We had originally planned on backpacking around Mt. Hood on the Timberline Trail on our recent vacation but the weather had a different idea. The forecast called for rain and snow showers for most of the week so we started searching for a Plan B. Between active fires and less than encouraging weather forecasts we decided that a backpacking trip wasn’t in the cards. My parents provided a solution though and we were able to pay them a visit in Central Oregon and do some day hikes from there. We stopped on our way over to Bend to take our first hike visiting Little Belknap and Belknap Crater in the Mt. Washington Wilderness.

The hike started off at the Pacific Crest Trail crossing of the McKenzie Pass Highway.
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We followed the PCT through a forest on a small hill surrounded by a lava flow produced by Little Belknap.
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Black Crater rose above the lava flow to the NE.
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The trail left the forested hill and briefly entered the lava flow before reaching a second forested hill.
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Belknap Crater and Little Belknap were visible ahead while the North and Middle Sister loomed on the horizon behind.
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The closer we got to Little Belknap the more detail we could make out of the colors and textures of this geologic feature.
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The lava flow offered many interesting features and it was interesting to see the few plants that had managed to find a foothold in the rocky landscape.
Lichen on the lava
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Turtle
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Little tree
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Ewok waving
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Rock hill
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Just under 2.5 miles from the highway we reached the Little Belknap Trail with a view of Mt. Washington and distant Mt. Jefferson.
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The Little Belknap Trail climbed to the summit of Little Belknap.
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Along the way the trail passes three caves.

Lower cave
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Middle & Upper caves
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Middle cave
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Upper cave (beware it drops about 40′ right near the opening.
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The final pitch to the summit is on a dark red cinder path.
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The 360 degree view includes several Cascade Mountains as well as some lower peaks.
Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack, and Mt. Jefferson
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Belknap Crater
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North and Middle Sister
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Broken Top
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Diamond Peak
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Black Butte & Black Crater
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The Husband
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Scott Mountain
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After visiting Little Belknap we continued on the PCT until it left the lava flow. Shortly thereafter the trail split at an unsigned junction.
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The PCT continued straight but we forked left on the unofficial trail toward Belknap Crater. The trail climbed gradually through a sparse forest to the base of the crater. The views here were great. The blue sky was dotted with white clouds high above the summit.
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We were surprised by the various colors and different features on Belknap Crater now that we had gotten close.
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The trail skirted up around the north side of the crater before launching more steeply up toward the summit.
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The views were excellent from the long summit ridge, especially of Mt. Washington.
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There was a large crater on the SE side of the summit which consisted of various colored rocks.
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After checking out the summit and crater we began descending down the west side of Belknap Crater toward a smaller crater on the NW flank.
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This crater wasn’t as colorful as it was made up of darker lava rocks. At the bottom we could see lots of tracks in the sand.
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There was an interesting line going up along the east side of Belknap Crater. We couldn’t tell if it was a game trail or just some odd feature but it didn’t appear to be a trail used by people.
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We took a final break on a downed tree near the PCT junction with a great view of Belknap Crater.
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The sky was becoming increasingly cloudy as we headed back to the car. It was a sign of things to come. On this day though the weather had been nearly perfect, and we were looking forward to the rest of the weeks hikes.
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Happy Trails!

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/albums/72157658844385675

Tags Belknap Crater, Black Crater, Diamond Peak, hiking, lava, Little Belknap, McKenzie Highway, Middle Sister, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington Area, Mt. Washington Wilderness, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, Scott Mountain, The Husband, Three Fingered Jack

Hiking Mollala Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Table Rock to Pechuck Lookout

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 8, 2015
8 Comments on Table Rock to Pechuck Lookout

**Note the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire burned a portion of this hike.**

We have two lists of “To Do” day hikes within a reasonable driving distance. One list is the hikes we have yet to do, and the second list is hikes we want to try again for one reason or another. Table Rock was one of the hikes on the later list having first visited in October of 2012. During that hike smoke from the Pole Creek fire in the Three Sisters Wilderness had limited the views and being fall it was too late for many flowers. We had seen enough on that visit to think it would be worth a second visit in early summer to see if we could catch the views and see what flowers there might be. I put it down on our schedule as our annual 4th of July hike thinking the timing might be good for wildflowers plus the drive avoided much time on freeways or busy highways.

The Table Rock Wilderness consists of 6028 acres designated in 1984 as wilderness and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Several trailheads access the 16 miles of trails in the area. For our hike we started at the Table Rock Trailhead which happens to be the shortest route to the summit of Table Rock, the highest point in the wilderness.

When we redo a trail I try to find some way to differentiate the hike from the earlier visit. Only 13 of our 172 hikes so far had been “re-hikes” and only 3 of those had we done the same exact trails. Three other times we added other short hikes on different trails, and on the remaining 7 we extended the hike visiting new places further along the trail. The plan to make this visit unique was to continue on past Rooster Rock, where we had turned around on our first visit, and continue on to Pechuck Lookout.

We set off on an old roadbed that is now the Table Rock Trail after rocks slides closed the road, the first at the current trailhead. We reached the second slide after .3 miles where the trail briefly entered the forest to bypass the slide.

Beyond the second slide the old road again becomes the trail for nearly another mile. Small trees and flowers now line the gravel road making it a pleasant walk.

Rabbit along the road.

At the 1.3 mile mark the trail leaves the road for good at the site of the former trailhead. Shortly after reentering the forest the Image Creek Trail joins from the right. A nice sign that had not been there in 2012 pointed to the Table Rock Trail.

From this junction the trail passes below a large rock field that extends from the base of Table Rock then swings out and around a rocky ridge before turning back toward Table Rock and entering the rock field going the opposite direction of the earlier pass below.

The rock field offers a close up look at Table Rocks columnar basalt cliffs. Numerous pikas were calling out from the rocks all around us but we weren’t able to spot any.

There were also a few flowers managing to bloom in the rocks.

The trail then reenters the forest and climbs to a trail junction in a saddle. We turned left and followed the Table Rock Summit trail .4 miles to the tilted plateau of Table Rock.

The view was indeed better than it had been on our previous visit despite a fire that had broken out on Mt. Adams the day before. We could just make out Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier along with Mt. Adams in Washington and had good views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington, and the Three Sisters in Oregon.

Mt. Jefferson to the Three Sisters

Mt. Hood

Mt. Jefferson

Three Fingered Jack

Three Sisters

Mt. Adams

After exploring the plateau we returned to the junction and took the unsigned Saddle Trail toward Rooster Rock. Two things stand out about this trail. First is the ants which were everywhere. They were all over the trail and there were several large anthills right next to it.

The second thing that made an impression is the steepness of this trail as it dips down and then back out of a thimbleberry meadow at the head of Image Creek. The trail all but disappeared in the thimbleberry bushes but it wasn’t too hard to follow. The nice thing about thimbleberry is that the plants do not have thorns so they are not bad to walk through. We did have to maneuver around a couple of devil’s club plants though.

The steep climb up from Image Creek ends at a saddle below Rooster Rock. Trees here block the view of Rooster Rock but a short path to the right goes up through a small meadow to a rocky viewpoint.

I had thought this small meadow might be a good wildflower spot, and there were some but not in any large amounts.

The view toward Rooster Rock was better this time too.

After a short rest we were ready to head for Pechuck Lookout. From the saddle we needed to drop down on the other side of the ridge to the High Ridge Trail. We were now starting the portion of the hike that we had not done before and we were in for a surprise. Just on the other side of the saddle was a meadow full of wildflowers.

Many of the flowers were past their prime succumbing to the heat, but there were still enough to make it an impressive sight. In most years our timing would likely have been spot on but the hot dry weather we’d been having has all the flowers at least two weeks ahead of schedule. On the far side of the meadow the trail again entered the trees.

The High Ridge Trail was far more gentle with its ups and downs than the Saddle Trail had been. After .7 miles the Rooster Rock Trail joined from the right coming up from the trailhead on Rooster Rock Rd.

We continued going up and down along the ridge leaving the wilderness and arriving at another former trailhead along the gated road near Pechuck Lookout.

The trail continued on the far side of the road passing a nice view of Table Rock along the way.

This short section of trail was another steep one before ending at the lookout.

Pechuck Lookout was staffed from 1918/19 until 1964 with the current structure having been built in 1932. It is now available for overnight stays on a first come first serve basis. There was no one staying there so we went inside to take a look around and sign the log book.

It was too warm to stay inside for long so we headed back out into the shade and had anther bite to eat while watching the many butterflies flitting about.

Aside from the view of Table Rock only Mt. Jefferson was visible and that mountain could only be seen in a couple of spots between some trees so it wouldn’t be a good place to stay if you’re hoping for mountain views.

We returned the way we’d come, skipping the side trips to the rocky viewpoint and the summit of Table Rock. The views to the south had become increasingly hazy, but Mt. Hood looked much clearer now that the sun had passed over.

The only other hikers we saw all day were between the summit trail junction and the old road on the way back to our car and that was only two other couples. The final stretch along the old road felt really long after all the climbing we’d done. I spent part of the final 1.3 miles chasing an orange butterfly that wouldn’t sit still long enough for me to get a picture. It took awhile but Warren (as I named him) finally gave me some shots.

It wound up being a longer hike than we expected. Everything we looked at indicated we’d be doing 14.8 miles but the final GPS reading was 15.7. With the various trailheads available this could have easily been split up into several shorter hikes for more sensible hikers. The Table Rock Wilderness is certainly a place worth visiting, and there should be plenty of ripe thimbleberries come August. Happy Trails!

flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/sets/72157655417439836

Tags hiking, image creek, mt. adams. high ridge trail, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Oregon, pechuck lookout, rooster rock, table rock, table rock wilderness, Thimbleberry, Three Fingered Jack, Three Sisters Area

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Trip report

Marion Lake and Marion Falls

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 7, 2014
3 Comments on Marion Lake and Marion Falls

When it was time to say goodbye to Central Oregon we packed up and headed for one final hike. We chose Marion Lake as the destination hoping for some good fall colors along the way. We passed over the crest of the Cascade Mountains returning to the west side and the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. The Marion Lake Trail set off through a green forest before entering the wilderness area.

We soon found the fall colors we were looking for as we reached Lake Ann.

A half mile from Lake Ann we took the Marion Outlet Trail in search of the unmarked side trail to Marion and Gatch Falls.

The side trail was about 200yds from the junction and we followed toward Marion Creek and the falls. Someone had put a sign up indicating a yellow jacket nest along the trail so we bypassed that section rejoining the path a bit beyond an overlook of the falls. The path continued steeply down to the base of Marion Falls.

From Marion Falls it was just a short distance down to a view that included Gatch Falls (which some have argued is really a lower tier of Marion Falls).

After visiting the falls we continued toward Marion Lake. At a junction with the Blue Lake Trail we crossed Marion Creek hoping to get a view of Mt. Jefferson from across Marion Lake.

At the edge of a rock field that was ablaze in Fall colors we followed a path down to the lake shore where there was a nice view of Mt. Jefferson to the North.

There was an Osprey circling the lake apparently looking for breakfast.

We then recrossed the lake’s outlet and headed toward Marion Lake’s day use peninsula. As we made our way around the lake Three Fingered Jack came into view.

From the peninsula both Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack were visible but never at the same time.

After leaving the peninsula the trail crossed over another rock field with even more colorful leaves and many small birds.

Looking back we could see the peninsula and Three Fingered Jack.

After leaving the lake shore we came to another trail junction which was unsigned. We turned left to complete the small loop back to the earlier junction just prior to the Marion Falls side trail. There was more rocky hillsides and orange leaves along this portion.

We returned to Lake Ann where we found a good number of ducks floating on the far side of the lake.

From there we finished off the final 1.8 miles of our vacation hiking. It was time to go back and get ready for my Grandmother’s 90th birthday party the next day. Happy Trails (and happy birthday Grandma!)

flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/sets/72157648323073921/
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10205149523124870.1073741915.1448521051&type=1

Tags Ducks, fall colors, gatch falls, hiking, lake ann, marion falls, marion lake, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Oregon, Osprey, Three Fingered Jack, yellow jackets