What's in the October 2024 Bend Premier Real Estate Newsletter?

• Bend Home Sales Are Up
• Easy Cheeseburger Soup
• Fall Activities in Central Oregon
• Canyon Meadow Hike
• The Top Three Reasons Affordability is Improving

Canyon Meadow is a Permitted Hike in the Mt Jefferson Wilderness

Canyon Meadow is a relatively easy hike in Central Oregon if limited to just the meadow loop which takes trekkers through burned forest, old growth forest and the meadow back to the beginning at Jack Lake. However, many will take the one way climb past the meadow up to the base of Three Fingered Jack. This adds significant elevation gain as well as beautiful views of Three Fingered Jack, sometimes including mountain goats and technical climbers on the craggy top of the mountain. For those adventurous enough to climb the loose rock and pumice past the glacial lake onto the ridge separating Three Fingered Jack from the nearby unnamed hill, the views south toward the Three Sisters and Mt. Washington and the views north toward Mt. Jefferson are spectacular. 

Scrambling down the loose scree from the view points takes time, and trekking poles can be very helpful. Once the difficult section of the hike is passed, people can return the way they had come, or for a difference experience they can hike down the meadow following the stream that flows from the moraine holding the glacial lake. During certain times of the year, this path can be through acres of lupine dominated wildflowers. For those who take the entire Canyon Meadow loop as suggested, the trip results in over 1600 feet of elevation gain and under eight miles in length.

What's in the September 2024 Bend Premier Real Estate Newsletter?

• Are Lower Mortgage Rates Spurring Bend Sales?
• Summertime Fruit Salad
• 10 Things to Do in September
• Take the Climbers Trail to Middle Sister
• Early Forecasts for the 2025 Housing Market

If you are one of the people who love to climb mountains, you are probably familiar with the climber's trail which provides the established way to summit North Sister in the Oregon Cascades. For those not that ambitious but who love a long day hike, taking the trail part way will enable hikers to have amazing Cascades views plus close up access to Hayden Glacier on Middle Sister.

The route to Hayden Glacier starts at the Pole Creek Trailhead. This is the same trail that is taken to reach Camp Lake which provides for wonderful access to the north facing slopes of South Sister. The first 3.5 miles is through the burned forest of the 2012 Pole Creek fire, but after leaving burned woods, the trail enters healthy forest and the trek is shaded. Before hikers reach the North Fork of Whychus Creek, an unmarked trail intersects the main path. Climbers take this path (which has an optional loop up and back) to access the hike to summit North Sister.

The climbers' trail gains elevation quickly as hikers walk up the lower slopes of Middle and North Sister. The first mile or so remains in shaded forest, but as hikers gain elevation, they leave forest and start walking through the jumbled rock and ash of multiple moraines. At one time these were filled with glaciers, but these have mostly melted, leaving behind the steep gullies and loose stone scrapped off the mountains over thousands of years. Climbing up the moraines can be difficult, but coming down is harder as it is easy to slip on the loose stone. 

For those who do continue the technical climb up North Sister, it is recommended this be done in a group with people who really know what they are doing. For those of us who just enjoy a great, long day hike, the option to travel to Hayden Glacier is one very few do and it can be very rewarding. The entire trip, including the loop up and back the climber's trail, is under 3000 feet of elevation gain and less than 13 miles back to the Pole Creek Trailhead.

Golden Lake is Not an Easy Hike

For Central Oregon residents and visitors looking for a great day hike, there are a good number of options available. For many, a hike of 2 to 4 miles to an amazing destination followed by the same distance back can create a full day with time to relax and enjoy both the original destination and the time back home. However, for those wishing to see more in the Cascade forests besides what is seen in a day hike, many will backpack and spend more time enjoying the destination before venturing further or coming back. 

Golden Lake is one of those rarely seen destinations. It can be accessed through multiple approaches. These include the popular Green Lakes Trail in which hikers walk past the northern most Green Lake and travel above the valley to the pass between South Sister and Broken Top and then down the path that leads to Park Meadow, making sure they take the unmarked trail off this path and hike the half mile to Golden Lake. Another approach is from Three Creeks Lake, taking the Park Meadow trail and hiking through and past Park Meadow towards Green Lakes and then taking the unmarked trail to Golden Lake. Both approaches are over seven miles one direction, but the approach from Three Creeks Lake is a little shorter.

Hikers coming from Three Creeks Lake are required to walk through four miles of burned forest, the result of the Milli Fire seven years ago. There is beauty, however, in the recovering forest with many wildflowers and young trees growing back. Past the burned area, hikers enter forest before they reach Park Meadow, which was untouched by fire and a place many backpackers will spend the night. The trail steepens past park Meadow and after another mile and a half, the turn off to Golden Lake is reached.

The name for Golden Lake is obvious during certain times of the year when yellow wildflowers are blooming in the meadow that surrounds the lake. The lake itself can reflect Broken Top, South, Middle and North Sisters on calm days. The setting is serene and lovely with very few people around. 

However, one of the most special things about Golden Lake is the small stream which flows into the western side of the lake. Besides the numerous wildflowers growing on each side of the stream, people who take the time to hike the mile up that stream reach an isolated area that very few people ever visit. That last mile is steep, but the cascading stream with its wildflowers and ever changing views of the Three Sisters are amazing. At the end of the stream is a moraine which contains two springs which form the stream. People who scramble up the moraine will reach an isolated tarn lake and past that, another moraine and a second tarn lake even more special than the first. This second lake has phenomenal reflections and views of Broken Top. For those who are able to travel the entire distance, the reward can be some of the most breathtaking natural sights in Central Oregon. It is truly an exceptional place.

For those having enough energy to do the entire hike in a day starting from and returning to Three Creeks Lake, plan on sixteen miles (eight in the burned forest) and over 2000 feet of elevation gain.