Today we took a bus up to Sunshine Meadows. It is a ski resort that does alpine hikes in the summer. We got up early and hiked with the kids making it down just in time before the rain poured down.
One of the most popular hiking trails in the central Cascades near Bend is the Green Lakes trail. You follow a creek with lots of waterfalls up to beautiful alpine scenery with lakes surrounded by mountains, all with minimal uphill grade. The hike is 8 miles total but you only gain a modest 1100 ft over the 4 miles to the lake. Plus the trail-head is only about 25 minutes from Bend signed just past Sparks lake on the right.
I had never hiked it before and Hunter was game to go and see if he could do the 8 mile trek, so we arrived at the trailhead a little before 1 pm. It was crowded as one might expect for a nice summer weekend but even with all the cars it still felt very peaceful.
Here are a few pictures of the hike in:
A few pics of the main lake:
These lakes are beautiful but are fed by surrounding snow melt so are known to be frigid most of the year even on the hottest days but maybe because this past winter was low snow, the water today was cold but still bearable! I tried it first and then Hunter made the plunge as well!
A great late summer day to be out in the mountains. Hunter did an awesome job!
Kelly left for California today with her dad and the kids for the week. I will fly down next weekend and drive back with them, however with no family today, I decided to go out for a hike today in the high cascades. My destination was the Matthieu Lakes (North and South) via a 7 mile loop hike. I departed from Dee Wright Observatory about 15 miles southwest of Sisters. This starting point adds an extra mile each way from the standard trailhead but the views from the lava fields are great. The weather was warm with a slight breeze, and a perfect day for a walk. I brought Red with me to enjoy the lakes. He love the swimming but is not in as good a shape as he was in his younger years. He was suffering near the end and I had to carry him off and on the last 1/3 of a mile.
View of North and Middle Sister at the start of the hike along with the snow barren Mt Washington while hiking along the lava fields.
The hike takes you up to around 6000 ft. Here are some pictures along the highest point of the hike and South Matthieu lake that has North Sister poking up in the background.
After enjoying the sun at South Mattieu Lake, we headed down hill to the slighly bigger North Mathieu Lake. Red got out and did more swimming at this one.
From here it was back to the car for a cold beer waiting on ice.
I took the Older Boys on a hike up Tumalo Mountain this morning. A good starter hike in terms of distance and difficulty but with amazing views of Mt Bachelor on the hike up. Then at the top you get treated to views of the Sisters mountains and Broken top.
On Sunday (Aug 24) my friend and work colleague Matt decided to climb to the summit of Broken Top (9175 ft). Broken top is one of the local volcanoes in the 3 Sisters Wilderness. Broken top is mostly class 2 with a small section of class 4 low class 5 scrambling/climbing near the summit. We did the Northwest Ridge route, that starts from Broken top trail head. The drive to the Broken top trail head is an interesting drive to begin with that you can likely get up with a 2 wheel drive BUT you will need high clearance. Its about 8-9 miles off the cascade lakes highway by Todd Lake and takes you up into some beautiful country with high country meadows and forest.
The hike from the trail head starts with approx 4.5 miles of relatively flat hiking to the Green lakes. It is some great hiking with views of the BT crater, high country meadows and views of Mt. Batchelor and sparks lake.
Just before arriving at Green lakes we headed Northeast cross-country up towards the northwest ridge of BT. The first picture in this set - you can see a view of the northwest ridge (coming up from the left in the picture) taken from the South sister trail (Moraine lake in the foreground) by one of the hikers in our group a couple weeks prior. As you head up to the NW ridge you get great views of South Sister. The last 2 in the set are from the lowest saddle when you ascend onto the NW ridge
Here is a great pano shot I took looking Northwest from the ridge (Matt in the shot)
Here are some shots of the ridge and summit
Some shots of the cross country descent and a great view of the Sisters and Green lakes that most people would not get since its not on the standard trail
The Three Sisters are a series of Volcanoes near Bend. South Sister is the highest of the three, closest to Bend and generally the least technical making it idea for those wishing to try a real mountain without technical climbing. It's still a good hike though at almost 5000 vertical feet of climbing and over 12 miles round trip. I was up it in 2011 almost to the day and this time doing it again with a group of eager guys from work. We left the Devils lake trail-head at 7 am. We made summit in about 4 hours. It took just over 2 to descend. Matt brought some ice cold beers for the parking lot when we returned. It was a little smoky on the way up due to the fires but it cleared up by the way down with a change in wind direction. Great time but everyone is going to be sore for the next couple days.
Today I wanted to take the boys up on a mountain hike for some views without a lot of steep uphill mileage. I selected Triangulation peak. While it was about 1:45 drive from bend to the trailhead, it looked to be a hike with some great views of the massive Mt. Jefferson Volcano and a fun hidden cave. The hike was about 4.5 miles round trip with only some minor elevation gain to get to the summer with the amazing views you see in the photos. Also some great wildflowers along the trail
We also hunted and found Boca cave as well that allows for a very unique shot of Mt. Jeff framed in the cave entrance. The cave has been used for centuries by Indian hunting parties to get out of bad weather.
First family camp trip for Abbie and PJ. We went with some neighbor friends of ours (the Gillettes) to Rock Creek campground on Crane Prairie Reservoir in the Cascade Mountains. Just one night but a fun time even though it was a bit of a cold night. Here are a few pictures around camp.
On Saturday afternoon we did a hike to Lucky Lake. Preston gave it a good go but I ended up carrying him most of the way:)
A couple of panoramic shots from down at the lake below our camp site
We had a nice leisurely hike today along the Deschutes river south of Bend finished off by a picnic lunch. We started at the Meadow Picnic area which is accessed about 4 miles south of bend on the Cascade lakes highway. From here we simply walked south along the river.
After South Ice Cave, we moved onto two other close geological formations in this part of south central oregon. The first is known as Fort Rock, which is an example of a Tuff Ring, and the Second is called Hole in the Ground which is classed as a Maar or Explosion Crater. You will see from the photo's that while the names are not all that original they do fit well. Both are examples of where lava came to the surface and hit some body of water. Normally when lava hits the surface it forms a cinder cone like Pilot Butte in Bend. In cases where it hits water on the way to the surface, the reaction can be explosive.
Fort Rock
From Wikipedia (which sites the original source)
Fort Rock was created when basalt magma rose to the surface and encountered the wet muds of a lake bottom. Powered by a jet of steam, molten basalt was blown into the air, creating a fountain of hot lava particles and frothy ash. The pieces and blobs of hot lava and ash rained down around the vent and formed a saucer-shaped ring (called a tuff Ring) sitting like an island in the lake waters. Steam explosions also loosened angular chunks of black and red lava rock comprising the valley floor. These blocky inclusions are incorporated into the fine-grained tuff layers at Fort Rock. Waves from the lake waters eroded the outside of the ring, cutting the steep cliffs into terraces 66 feet (20 m) above the floor of Fort Rock Valley.
Hold in the Ground
So how was it formed? Basaltic magma intruding near the surface flashed ground water to steam, which blew out overlying rock and soil, along with some juvenile material. As material slid into the hole formed, it closed the vent and the process repeated, eventually forming the huge hole.Blocks as large as 26 ft in size were flung as far as 2.3 mi from the crater.
Watch the video. If you look closely you can see the two boys with red walking down to the center of the crater to give you an idea of the size.