This Friday hike took Jean and I to Black Crater off of the McKenzie Hwy 242. This trail is the first one you come upon after reaching the lava fields. We arrived around 9:30a and there were already several (6?) cars in the parking lot. We began the ascent. And boy, the trail starts climbing right off...straight up. It was not too hot at first but climbing like that, you work up a sweat. The trail heads through that spindly pine-y lava rock forest with few flowers and little of interest in the underbrush. You hike up to a ridge then up to another and finally you are on the north flank of the mountain and the views open up so that you can see Mt Washington, Mt Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt Hood and the town of Sisters and north of it all below.
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| Mt Jefferson |
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| Sisters and Black Butte on left |
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| Mt Jefferson and Black Butte |
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| Mt Washington |
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| Red Paintbrush |
We kept climbing on up, now experiencing some switchbacks...views all around. Finally getting into some flowers too. Then you turn the corner and it looks like you are on the moon! Lava rock and crooked weather-blasted whitebark Pines.
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| Broken Top and the Sisters |
When we got to the spot where you can scramble up the final rocks to the top of Black Crater, there were some people there, so we decided to descend the flank of the mountain a little and have lunch with a view of the mountains all around.
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| top of Black Crater |
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| Our lunch spot view of Washington |
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After enjoying almost an hour at the top we made the ascent to the very tip top and snapped some photos before heading down.
It was heating up by now so we didn't dilly dally and even jogged when the trail permitted. We made good time on the hike, even though it was a tough one - 2500 ft gain in 3.7 miles. 7.4 mi RT. Beautiful!
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