Three Sisters, Oregon

Jennifer and I with Cleo, our Aussie

The loop hike around Three Sisters is a fantastic adventure on great trails and of course with stunning views. Considered one of the must do backpack trips of the Northwest, it has been in our bucket of to do hikes for awhile. Rising 10,000 feet in the Central Oregon Cascades, the hike provides endless views of these three peaks known as North, Middle and South Sister, as well as the other family members, The Husband, The Wife and Little Brother. The views extended to Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack and Mt Washington to the North and of course Broken Top and Mt Bachelor to the south.

South Matthieu Lake and North Sister

Jennifer and I planned to push ourselves and hike relatively fast on this hike. Since we were doing this hike for the first time however, we planned and packed food and fuel for six days. Our thought was that we might do it in four or five. With heavy packs we left the Lava Lake Campground early under a heavy frost and headed for the Pacific Crest Trail. On the PCT we headed south and hiked through the trees. We decided to take a side trail to North Matthieu Lake and continued on to pick up the PCT at South Matthieu Lake. 

Directly South of the lake is Scott Pass. Here we decided to stay on the PCT and do the loop hike counter-clockwise. This section is an up and down hike through some fascinating lava scenery. After rounding a big cinder cone we found our first snow patch much to the delight of our 6 month old Australian Shepherd, Cleo.

We passed through an amazing display of flowers in a meadow where a trail led off to Scott Lake to the west.  The lupine and indian paintbrush laid a carpet out to the distant view of North Sister. North Sister was originally named Mount Faith by early settlers. Middle Sister was named Mount Hope and South Sister was named Mount Charity. For whatever reason the names did not stick. While I like native american names for the mountains, there does not seem to be any on record for these. Apparently Native Americans only traveled to this area to hunt and gather obsidian among other things.

Just beyond that we found our first real great views of the mountains to the North. The sky was hazy from a couple of large forest fires burning near Mt Hood and on the Warm Springs reservation.

Continuing on we passed on the side trip to Collier Glacier overlook, one we are sure to take next trip here. Here we met a hiker who shared the story of how the nearby pass was named. Opie Dildock Pass was named in the 1930's by a couple of Forest Service Rangers. Searching for a route through this impossible landscape for the Skyline Trail, they finally found this the only possible passage. They named it after a cartoon strip character from the early 1900's who always found his way out of tough situations!

North Sister,  Middle Sister,  Little Brother and Collier Cone

Beyond the pass are obsidian fields unlike anything we had ever seen. Fields and hills of gleaming black obsidian rock....absolutely stunning! The landscape radiated a brilliance from the sun reflecting off the polished looking black rock.

After passing the Obsidian Falls ( ironically no obsidian here except for Obsidian Creek) we made our way a couple more miles to our turn off from the PCT.











 Heading west we worked our way down to beautiful Linton Meadows. We camped in the woods near Linton Creek and enjoyed a hardy crab and cream of corn medley soup for dinner well earned after 15 miles of trail.

We had a campfire that night and laughed hard at our failed efforts to get our bear bag hung higher than six feet off the ground! We had essentially created a bear pinata but in the dark had no resolution but hope. We are not rookies but you would have thought it if you happened upon that!

Morning brought a beautiful sunny and warmer day. We had oatmeal and coffee and a puppy ready for the trail!

My wife hiking west towards The Husband, a mountain in the distance.

We passed The Husband, a prominent peak west of the Sisters and continued on through some of the most beautiful country we would see.

We continued south alternating between forest and meadows managing to catch sight of four deer grazing in a meadow we passed through.  We came to a shelter at James Creek that reminded us of a seemingly identical one we stayed in on Mt Rainier two years ago. Names were carved by long gone visitors and someone had placed an earie looking gnarled piece of wood in the rafters. I am sure it could have looked like a gargoyle at night.

Rejoining the PCT  we watered up at Mesa Creek and well we did. The Wickiup Plain is long and barren. It was hot out and our pup Cleo doesn't care much for the sun. It was fascinating to watch her stay right behind me in my shadow to shade herself the entire 2-3 miles.

The wife and The Wife

Passing another prominent outcropping it seemed fitting to get a picture of my wife and The Wife, at 7054 feet she is 470 feet shorter than The Husband.

Cleo has many funny tricks beyond the shade thing.  She ran up and posed at every sign post as if to say 'look....this is the way'.

We took lunch and soaked our feet in Sisters Mirror Lake. It is worth the mile hike off the PCT and our lunch here stretched to almost two hours!

Heading east after lunch we climbed steadily on the south flank of South Sister. At the top we startled a small buck who gave us time to snap off a few pictures before bouncing off.

Sitting in our campsite at Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake was our stop for the night. After much discussion we decided we had only stayed in one comparable campsite in our lives and that was last year on Mt Adams. This was amazing as this site sat alone on a small rise overlooking the turquoise Moraine Lake at the base of South Sister. We had covered another 15 miles and were exhausted. We were replenished by the scenery and a dinner of beef stroganoff. Fires are not permitted here but watching the mountain change colors as the sun went down entertained us and the stars eventually lit up the sky.

My view from the tent

I woke after a windy night to a calm warm morning, a beautiful bed headed wife, a pup with bad breath  intent on giving morning kisses and this gorgeous mountain glowing in the sun.

Heading out of Moraine Lakes we had to leash Cleo. This is a dog on leash area and would remain so for about 7 miles. Cleo has been running free for 30 miles and this was a challenge for us all. She did wonderful but it certainly added to the workout. We followed the beautiful and fast flowing Fall Creek up to Green Lakes. This was by far the busiest stretch of this hike. Moraine Lake is a camp spot for climbing South Sister and Green Lakes is a day hiking destination that is among the most popular in Oregon. It is certainly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Set in a basin at 6500 feet in the cradle of 10,358 foot South Sister, the main lake is a deep indigo blue adorned by flowery meadows, forest and snow banks. 

Climbing northeast out of the basin after passing the third lake, a beautiful small turquoise gem, We paused at the pass at 7000 feet amazed. We could see for miles out over the lakes and valley below.

Broken Top

Broken Top towered to the southeast only a thousand feet shorter that the Sisters. One wonders why it did not garner a family position? maybe uncle?










To the West towered South Sister while Middle and North Sisters dominated the northern skyline.

South, Middle and North Sisters

We continued our trek descending towards Park Meadow. The views were amazing and very shortly we came upon a camp site that we decided must make a future to do list. Cleo meanwhile was enjoying the newly appreciated freedom of being off leash. Another of her oddities is that she loves the snow. She seeks it out and will run far off trail to lay in it if only for a second.



We came upon two gentlemen on big horses about this time. Cleo was going absolutely nuts over these horses. They assured us we could let her go as their horses had seen it all. She barked and tried her hardest to goad them into some form of fear all to no avail. They ignored her barking and jumping around completely. All the while we were trying to have a conversation with the horsemen. They gave us directions to an unmarked cutoff to Golden Lake. Not surprisingly we missed the trail, having barely heard the directions over Cleo's antics, and wandered in to beautiful Park Meadows where we took lunch beside Park Creek. After lunch we continued North and soon found ourselves passing through a variety of burnt, dead and dying forests. Generally speaking this section of trail after leaving Park Meadows was viewless. We watered up at Soup Creek and climbed to the northeast flank of North Sister. We left the trail and climbed high to a flat bench of course sand where we made camp.

Our gnarled wood from old dead trees made for a fascinating fire in a wide open space where we watched a whole sky full of stars. We gorged ourselves on a dinner of peas and potato mixed with an au gratin potato meal. It was well deserved and needed after a day of over 17 miles of hiking.

Morning was the warmest yet and shorts alone at 7:00 a.m. was enough. We took a little longer than usual getting going and Cleo was anxious and let us know it. She talks when she has something to say and it is adorable if somewhat annoying.

Cleo runs up and hops up on rocks posing through out the trip.

We finished the trip with a tough 10 mile hike up to Scotts Pass near South Matthieu Lake and on to our car at Lava Lake Trailhead. Our feet were sore but our souls were well fed and we were proud of our accomplisments.  Most importantly Subway was only 10 miles away!

100 yards from the end of a 60 mile hike in four days....you have to smile about that

We will return in the very near future for more of the Three Sisters Wilderness.

Silver Star

Silver Star via Ed's Trail

You really gotta want it to get here but wow what a view virtually the whole hike. This is not my first hike up Silver Star but I have always went up from Grouse Vista, an easy drive but way less scenic hike.

Let's start with the drive....the last 10 miles of this drive are pretty treacherous on a dry day. That said, if you go slow and easy in a four wheel drive you will make it no problem. It is a popular approach, so if you go on a weekend, as we did just follow the others!

The hike begins with brushy switchbacks and beautiful vine maples. Then the wildflowers explode around you (in July). When you break into the open you gain views of Mt St Helens to the North  and soon Mt Adams to the North-East. Eventually you merge with an old Jeep track. Ed's trail peels off about 20 yards along on the left. We took this trail and it wound its way up around the ridge giving great East and South-East views.

 The trail winds up through wildflower choked open meadows surprising with a great postcard view of Mt Hood framed in the snow clad bowl below Silver Star and Little Baldy.

The trail rises up to the jagged rocks at the top of the spine then wraps around North.

 Another surprise awaits in a spectacular natural arch, an arbor through which the trail runs. Traveling a bit further and past a sizeable cave, we were forced to turn back. The trail ascended a steep slope and was covered in snow. Our unpredictable pup would not make this a fun crossing. We decided to backtrack through the arch and take a small game trail up through the low huckleberry shrubs and join the Jeep track on the ridge.

This is a real gradual climb through several deep snow patches to the summit of Silver Star. Here we were able to see Mt Ranier, Mt St Helens, Mt Adams, The Goat Rocks, Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson! What a place for lunch...

Our return trip we stayed with the Jeep trail down the entire ridge. We were surrounded by large jutting outcroppings of rock, flowers of all colors and deep green distant meadows begging to be explored.

Bell Mountain

The Bell Mountain Trail 

This is a trail I have been meaning to do for some time. 

It originates at Moulton Falls Park, a place I have spent many summer days swimming in high school and over the years. The trail actually takes off about a mile down the Murphy Grade Trail. It winds up through the forest and opens to several clearings offering territorial views to Mt St Helens and Silver Star.

Foxglove and butterfly

Small bridges cross the streams and it is a very well maintained trail with all the beautiful flora and fauna we take for granted on the West side of the Cascades.

As this a 5 mile in and out our return trip took us through Moulton Falls Park where a very cold swim awaits the daring...

Metolious

Metolious River Trail

The Metolious River trail is a beautiful walk along a river as cold and clean as a river gets. The hike skirts the river going up one side and back down the other bank for most of the hike. There is a detour around some private property but mostly you are streamside. 

We did this walk with dogs and they loved it. at just around 6 miles, it taxed our new Austrailian Shepherd puppy.

We began our hike at the Lower Bridge Campground. A nice little shaded parking area is on the West side of the bridge. We hiked south along the river. on a gentle slope. The river moves fast and we hiked half a mile before we found a nice calm place for the dogs to cool down.

The river banks were teaming with Monarch butterflies one of which posed beautifully on a Tiger Lily.

The river is very popular with the fly fishermen as a catch and release must do destination. Consequently the ever grace-full casting fly fisherman can be found at almost every eddy and bend in the river. 

We hiked on to Wizard Falls Hatchery with its pools of fish large to small, the facility is a gift from the Civilian Conservation Corps. There is water to refill the canteen and restrooms here as well. The bridge here is where we crossed and headed back on the East side. There is a trail that continues to the headwaters here an in and back that adds about 6 miles to

the hike. 

Forget-Me-Nots (Myosotis Salvatica) a waterside plant.

Our return trip was equally enjoyable on the East bank, graced with plenty of sunshine, wildflowers and geese.