Crescent Mountain Trail 6-16-13

[nautachris]

I'm a few weeks late on this one, but wanted to share some pics from Crescent Mountain from an "early" Sunday morning. TH is located about a mile west of the US 20/OR 126 intersection near Santiam Junction. Turn north onto NF 2067 (Lava Lake Rd.), then make a left on gravel (with one deep crevasse, for lack of a better term) NF 508 until you reach the trailhead. It's about 3.5-4 miles one way from the trailhead to the top. From Lebanon, it's only 1 hr. 15 minutes away. Overall, this was a great (and relatively steep) hike through beautiful meadows, with a near 360 degree view from the top. As of June 16th, there was really no snow to speak of. On to the pictures...


The first mile is level to slightly downhill until crossing Maude Creek


Close to the creek crossing. After crossing Maude Creek, it's all uphill...


Maude Creek


Typical view ascending out of the Maude Creek valley. Pretty steep, but very well graded


About to emerge into a mile or so of meadows


First view southeast toward Mt. Washington


Not quite peak flower season at this point, but they were starting to pop out...


Looking southwest toward Echo Peak (foreground) and Cone Peak (background)


View west down the South Santiam River canyon (and US 20) toward Sweet Home


View north from the summit, with Crescent Lake below, and Hood in the background


Jefferson


Three Fingered Jack


Washington and the Sisters


Crescent Lake, just to the north


lets play Count the Cones...


Summit, looking south. I think there was an old lookout here...


heading back down, the only snow patch


Traversing the meadows


looking toward Cone Peak from the meadows

Easy to get to and highly recommended!

Chris S.
Lebanon, OR

[jessbee]

Nice! You keep posting reports from some of my favorite places. You've done a great job of exploring the area so far.