2013, 7-13, Oregon-Washington Hiking Trip AKA “Topless Tour 2013”

This trip occurred during a several year span where Jean and I weren’t able to get away for too many other vacation travels. We’d been thinking about a trip to the Northwest for a while and had looked at destinations including the Olympics, Oregon Caves, and Redwoods before deciding on a trip that would focus on Crater Lake and Mount St. Helens, with one day at Newberry Caldera. All three volcanoes had famously blown their tops, giving us the motto for the trip “Topless Tour 2013.” To keep things simple, we decided to leave the backpacking gear behind and just do a series of day hikes. Of our destinations all would be new to Jean, and I had only visited Crater Lake twice while in grad school, once on an overnight ski tour around the loop road, and another time on a shorter summer trip with my parents.

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We flew from Knoxville to Portland on Friday, got a rental car, and stayed in a motel close to the airport. The next day we drove down to Eugene to see the town where I had gone to graduate school. The campus was a lot prettier than I remembered; the science complex then looked 1960s era-Soviet. We spent some time at a new-to-me Natural History Museum before heading out on a walking tour that included the Volcanology Building, and loop around Pre’s Trail across the river near the football stadium. It turned out to be state fair weekend, so we ended up staying in Oakridge (yes, one word in OR), which I remembered as a dingy old logging town, but was now revitalized as a mecca for mountain biking.

Mount Hood from our flight in.

Wizard Island in March 1981.

Hiram on campus.

7-14-2013 Crater Lake

The next day was the big event, Crater Lake. Few parks have the impact that Crater Lake does the first time you step to the rim and see the lake. The blue of the lake seems too rich to be mere water. Next the sheer size hits you, how can the lake be so large, and how can the walls be so shear?  

Crater Lake at last!

Most of the hikes in the park are relatively short, one reason the park is relatively less visited by hikers and backpackers. It seemed hikers got a choice of either long hikes in the deep woods, or short hikes out in the open with views. For our first hike we picked Mt. Scott, the highest point in the park. The trail had just been cleared of snow but was in great shape and gave us tremendous views

On top of Mount Scott.

After our hike up Mt. Scott we continued around the loop road with shorter hikes at Sun Notch and Godfrey Glen and stops at Lady of the Woods, Rim Village, Crater Lake Lodge, and then Mazama Village. We got a brief scare when Jean’s allergies flared up. Fortunately, we were able to control things, and the trip didn’t spiral into coughing, wheezing mess. We spent the next three nights just south of the park at an A-frame cabin at the Aspen Inn in Fort Klamath, a spot that had been recommended by Jean’s sister’s family.

The Phantom Ship.

7-15-13 Crater Lake

Our big trip for the day would be the NPS boat excursion to Wizard Island, but the check-in for our ride wasn’t until 11:30, so we decided to hike Watchman Peak in the morning. Part of the hike is an old road which winds up to an old wood tower. Again, we had great views and an abundance of wildflowers, most of which we couldn’t identify.

Trail to Watchman Peak.

The Crater Lake Boat Ride is one of those iconic national park trips, but you don’t know if it is going to seem too touristy, or if it can really live up to its reputation. We found it to be wonderful. Maybe the one mile hike down to the boat dock on the Cleetwood Cove Trail is enough walking to feel you have earned your views. The blue water is every bit as amazing up close, and the views were as spectacular as those from the rim. We went all in, booking the option to explore Wizard Island. Though it took us a bit to find the right trail, we hiked to the top of the island and then down into its own small crater. I could not resist the opportunity to be in a crater in a volcano in a crater on a bigger volcano. The day was so warm and sunny we dunked our heads in the lake while waiting for our boat pickup, but still the water was far too cold for swimming. Most of the lake tour came after the island, the old man, the phantom ship, and some waterfalls. The scenery remained world class and was documented on the 207 pictures Jean took through the day. We stopped and ate at Mazama Village on our return.

We finally found the trail!

The top of Wizard Island.

Crater lake from Wizard Island.

7-16-23 Crater Lake

We got up early for our day in the park’s backcountry, the hike starting on the Pacific Crest Trail to Union Peak. The first three miles on the PCT were really pretty, but the bugs were thick enough to distract us from the flowers and forest. The final stages of the climb were steep, loose, and a little exposed, but the views again well worth the effort, especially those of the smaller peaks of the Cascades to the south.

Union Peak.

The return was unremarkable, except for Jean busting out the seam of her zippy pants. Luckily, the Aspen Inn had fishing décor as a decorative theme, and we were able to rob a little line from a decorative reel to repair her pants.

Along the Pacific Crest Trail.

Jean on Union Peak.

After the hike, and an ice cream stop at Mazama Village, we made two short stops; Castle Crest to learn some of the wildflower names, and Discovery Point.

Another view of Wizard Island.

7-17-2013 Newberry National Volcanic Monument

One of the big changes in the area since my grad school days was the creation of new national monuments at both Newberry Caldera and Mount St. Helens, but with both areas managed by the Forest Service instead of the NPS. When I arrived at U of O in 1980 it was just a few months after the eruption of St. Helens, and the area around the mountain was closed. I remember going through drifts of ash on my drive west to Eugene, but never got any closer to the mountain after that. I remember visiting Newberry as part of a field trip for my volcanology class.

Welcome to Newberry.

Newberry is close to Bend, OR and has a selection of trails for hikers and mountain bikers, as well as campgrounds and picnic area. Like Crater Lake the caldera at Newberry is filled with water, but here it fills two lakes, Paulina and East. The famous obsidian (volcanic glass) flows are the most recent of the volcanic activity. We decided to hike the Paulina Lakeshore Loop, and at the visitor center were advised to add on the Big Obsidian Loop.

The trails were well marked, in good shape and obviously well used. It was another hot day and the campgrounds with their broad beaches and shady sites looked appealing. I remembered the big obsidian flow from my field trip, it is really unusual to see one that large, a monstrous jumble of obsidian and pumice.

The big obsidian flow.

View across Lake Paulina to Big Obsidian.

After our hike we drove up the east side of the Cascades then through Portland with some great views of Mt. Hood. We stayed in a Super 8 just off the interstate near Kelso, WA that would be our base for visiting Mount St. Helens.

7-18-13 Mount St. Helens

Perhaps no other part of the country had changed as much in the last 30 years as Mount St. Helens. What was once a devastated moonscape was now starting to heal from the 1980 eruption. We started our trip at the visitor center off I-5. The USFS did a spectacular job with their interpretation of the site. The displays and the park movie do a great job filling in the history of the area, the eruption, and the recovery.

We decided to try the11-mile loop around Coldwater Lake for our first trip. For the first few months of 1980 there was no Coldwater Lake. After the eruption, Coldwater Creek was dammed by debris flows moving down the drainage of the North Fork of the Toutle River forming the lake. Coldwater Lake was in the blast zone and access was still restricted to day use only on trails.

Jean at Mount St. Helens.

We started up Trail 230A. It was amazing to realize that all the flora we saw here was regrowth. We passed some evidence of the logging that was in progress at the time of the eruption, a destroyed pole loader and bulldozer. The force of the eruption had mangled even some of the major structural parts of this heavy equipment. Equally impressive was the jumble of trees on the far ridge, leveled by the eruptive blast even though the mountain is still two ridges over. With a hot sunny day, we struggled on the section back down to the creek elevation where we finally stopped for lunch on the bridge over the inlet creek.

Damaged pole loader.

Flattened forest near Coldwater Lake.

Trail 211 on the back side of the lake was level and easy. Forest sections alternated with debris fields shed from the devasted ridge above the lake. There were a couple of lake accesses, at the second I took a short swim, just long enough to confirm the lake was correctly named.

Coldwater Lake.

Yes, it was cold.

7-19-13 Mount St. Helens

Our friends Claudia and Dan had recommended St. Helens to us, and the hike they most liked was the trip out to Harry’s Ridge for a view into the crater of the volcano. The hike starts from the Johnston Ridge Observatory and climbs a ridge above Spirit Lake to the site of one of the observation stations used to monitor the 1980 eruption. The hike is amazing, 100% above tree line, with great wildflowers, and even a surprise wildlife encounter. There was one exposed section called the Devils Elbow that would be uncomfortable for anyone with a fear of heights. Below us Spirit Lake was filled with a mass of floating dead trees uprooted in the eruption. More than 20 years after the eruption, its impact on the forests is still obvious.

Trailside at St. Helens.

The trail out to Harry's Ridge.

Mt. Adams and dead trees in Spirit Lake.

We ate lunch the old USGS observatory site which we were lucky to have to ourselves. We spent time studying the crater which showed the form of the main eruption and the domes and other features that had emerged from the crater floor since then. Though the crater is closed to all public access, there is a climbing trail on the southside. However, the number of daily climbers is rationed, and without an advanced permit, it hadn’t seemed prudent for us to wait overnight in line for one of the daily first come, permits. On our return we saw a herd of elk resting on a small bench above Spirit Lake.

Elk at Spirit Lake.

Hiram at St. Helens.

Back at the Observatory we spent some time watching their movie and browsing the displays, which were as good or better than those at the visitor center by the interstate.

7-20-13 Mount St. Helens

On our last day we did two short hikes on the south side of the Monument to explore the forested areas. Surprisingly, we found this area more crowded vs. the more spectacular trails around the blast zone.

Lava Canyon was another geologic marvel. Here a lahar from the 1980 eruption scoured out a deep narrow canyon that had previously been the path of a lava flow. The result was an impressive series of falls and cascades that gets more precipitous the farther you go downstream. We turned back just after descending a 30’ ladder.

Lava Canyon.

Next up was June Lake. An interesting hike, but when we got to the flats, no lake! We wandered around a bit, found a side path and followed it to the base of a 50’ waterfall feeding the lake. We stopped for lunch at this perfect spot and another pair of hikers told us to go to another falls just a bit up the trail, icing on the cake.

Waterfall near June Lake.

That evening we drove to the Portland Airport Super 8 and flew back to Knoxville the next day.