I have been wanting to do this ever since I read you could and Ann was up for it so we went! We hiked Tam MacArthur Rim as it is described in the Sullivan book. We kept going on the "Unmaintained" section looking for indications as to where people took off to the left to head to Broken Top. We saw a good possibility just at the base of the Red Cinder Cone, but decided to go to the top to scout a path from there (plus there was the view). As we walked we saw that the way down wasn't that bad so we just kept going. When it looked like we could go down with no problem, we did, digging into the mushy volcanic scree. The flowers in the lower area covered the hillsides, all in peak form. As we hugged the cone we came upon a trail coming down from the saddle just before you get to Broken Hand. We marked the trail to return that way - if we chose to. We hiked on, sometimes on a trail, sometimes cross country, but we could always see our goal just ahead. We just headed for natural saddles and avoided drop offs. It wasn't bad, but slower going than when hiking on a trail. We arrived at the Crater Creek headwaters and climbed up to be rewarded with the beautiful view of the Broken Top tarn. We hiked around the lake to the viewpoint saddle and then up a ways to be able to look north and east as well. So pretty! I took about a million pictures. Butterflies entertained us on our little pinnacle. We headed out the same way we came in except we headed east on the "unofficial Broken Top trail" that leads to the "bad road". Then we cut north at some trees and found a nice little campsite near Crater Creek. We continued down in the lower valley, passing lots of new flowers and the head waters to North Fork of Tumalo creek. We angled down just a little too far and cut west below where we were aiming, but we found the trail just fine.
The hike was about 12 mi, 2700 ft gain with the highest point at 8300 ft
map
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| Three Creeks Lake |
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| view from Tam MacArthur Rim - Broken Top, South, Middle, North Sister, Wash, Jack, Jeff etc |
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| approaching the Red Cinder Cone, Bachelor and Ball Butte in back |
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| view from side of cone |
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| view from top |
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| looking east |
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off trail now or following a scant one
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| This is a good spot to drop down, it is accessed after the Red Cone trail ends - as it enters into the rocks and comes back out again |
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| our destination is always in view |
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| Broken Hand |
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| almost there - just around the moraine dead ahead |
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| up the snow field over Crater Creek |
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| and the tarn reflecting Broken Top |
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| a view from the saddle |
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| looking north |
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| on the way back we chose to stay low in the valley |
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| This looked like a nice area to camp if there was no wind |
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