Broken Top Loop (7-20, 13.75 miles, 2,350')

[nautachris]

After doing Tumalo Mountain on Thursday, Green Lakes on Friday, and Matthieu Lakes on Saturday, I wanted to go 4 for 4 and finish the weekend with a proverbial bang. After seeing Broken Top from Tumalo Mtn., it looked like there was not a whole lot of snow left. Considering it is such a damn gorgeous mountain (and looks different from each side, with a touch of Glacier NP because of its diagonal rock striations), I was trying to find a way to get up there without taking the infamous forest roads NF 370 and NF 380 (for those not familair with the area, these "roads" are the only way to the official Broken Top trailhead, haven't been maintained in decades due to their location within the Three Sisters Wilderness, and make Skyline Rd. to the northern Jefferson Park trailhead look like the autobahn in comparison). Sullivan's "Green Book" mentioned that you could just park at the Todd Lake Trailhead and take the Todd Tr. to Soda Creek Tr. to Broken Top Tr. OK, so I also knew that from a quick glance at a map, but his books are so invaluable that they always rate a shout-out. Taking this combo of trails (plus an obvious but unofficial trail to the highlands just east of Broken Top) would make around a 14.5 mile out-and-back. However, I put 2 and 2 together and saw that you could make a 14 mile loop by walking back down the aforementioned NF 380 and NF 370 back to the Todd Lake TH. I'd usually prefer to not walk on roads for over 4 miles, but considering that these roads are no more than glorified trails and I wanted to see how bad they actually were, they made for a perfectly acceptable return route. Anyway, it ended up being 13.75 miles. Snow prevented me from making it to the pass mentioned in Sullivan's Central Cascades Broken Top chapter, but I did exceed the 8,000 ft. level after some hands-and-knees-and-pumice scrambling. OK, on to the pics...


cover shot in case this makes the front page


Mt. Bachelor from the Todd Lake TH parking lot


just to confirm I'm not lying about my starting point


generic shot of the first 1.5 miles of the Todd Trail...never too steep


first view of Broken Top in the distance


9 AM on a Sunday, to me this is church


the first of many many meadows


yay for more meadows


intersection with Soda Creek Trail...make a left here and it's down to the Green Lakes TH


needless to say, the colors this morning were incredible


no smoke in this part of Central Oregon


what happens when you roll directly out of bed and into the car without any thought of hair styling


looking back to Bachelor


view toward the southwest with Sparks Lake and Diamond Peak...with Mt. Thielsen making a cameo


proof of location


now heading east into the pumice meadows


oh so tempted to just ditch the trail here and lumber up there


Deschutes County and Bend need pics like this on their brochures


this stream looks eerily canal-like...there was a sign which I thought I took a pic of that said "Crater Ditch TH ->"...however I've never seen any other reference to the Crater Ditch Trailhead or Trail...


this is where the unofficial trail branches off to the north of the Broken Top Tr....about 0.4 miles west of the impossible-to-reach Broken Top TH


now we're on the unofficial trail....and snow fields start to make their presence known


looking back toward Bachelor again


Ball Butte


at this point I lost the official unofficial trail, which apparently went off to my east...Sullivan mentions a divide where you can peer west toward South Sister...from my perspective I was hoping the red hill on the right side of this pic was my goal, so I started to head toward it


Broken Hand


snow + pumice = slow elevation gain


contouring this beast wasn't getting me anywhere, so it was a straight-up attempt...and keeping with the Paula Abdul, it was two steps forward, one step back


made it to what I thought was the top...however the actual top was the next ridge to my north (this picture looks south)....however, I made it to 8,075 ft...and it's only July 20th!


Broken Hand and Bend...way in the distance


a rather sad selfie, but the highest selfie I've ever taken in Oregon (aside from the top of the Summit Lift at Mt. Bachelor, but that's cheating)


THAT is the pass I wanted to get to...no worries I need to take my gf on this hike in a month or so...it'll be melted out by then


top of the world...not really...considering South Sister is all of 5 miles to my west


time to glissade...beats bodily-embedded puimice


the official unofficial trail I lost in the snow


the steepness of this moraine-looking-thing I climbed


fast-forward and we're back on the Broken Top Trail heading east


near the "Broken Top Trailhead"


quite a large parking lot for a rather inaccessible trailhead

the next pics are from my walk down NF 380 and NF 370


pothole or pond?



"road" is a bit of a stretch


what it lacks in structural integrity, NF 380 makes up in jaw-droppitude


maybe NF 370 will be better?


nope...methinks this will need to be cleared if Deschutes intends to open this road by "the last week in July" as their website says


for a "road", this made pleasant walking


one more shot of Bachelor for good measure


federally-financed swimming pool


cute meadow about a mile up from the Todd Lake TH

Overall, this is one of my top 10 of all time (#definiteredovalue). This area looks quite different than much of the Cascades due to Broken Top's completely non-symmetrical appearance. I probably jumped the gun a bit in doing this in late July, but snow was not a problem at all on the maintained trails. I also got lucky with the weather, as I was getting back to my car, everything started to cloud up and the top of Broken Top even disappeared. All I can say is "good luck getting to the official trailhead"! They say it can be done, even in a passenger car, but those two roads are probably best enjoyed walking. Plus, doesn't scenery seem just a bit nicer after you've hiked 6.5 miles each way to see it instead of driving up in a car?!

I apologize for my blabbering. I'm exhausted and am on Deschutes Fresh Squeezed #2 at the moment.

Thanks!

Chris
Bend, OR

[payslee]

Awesome pics from one of my favoritest places. A good-road route to the broken top crater is actually Tam Macarthur trail from the north. There's about a mile off trail but its super easy open country _ just contour around till you hit the outlet stream from the lake. The little trail into the notch of the crater is on the south side of that.

Although the route you took is also super beautiful, especially as you climb up to the increasingly jaw-dropping views... We did a 3 day loop all the way around a few years ago which I highly recommend. A terrific place - you guys will love the crater.

-payslee

[RobinB]

Thanks for the TR and beautiful pictures. I've been thinking about heading up to that area this weekend - probably on a modified version of the other Broken Top loop - and this is definitely encouragement.

this is where the unofficial trail branches off to the north of the Broken Top Tr....about 0.4 miles west of the impossible-to-reach Broken Top TH

Is the trail junction obvious? Apart from the sign, do you remember any landmarks I should be looking for?

[nautachris]

RobinB -

Yes, the trail junction is super obvious. If you're coming from the east (Broken Top TH), it's less than a half mile from the parking lot. The sign mounted to the post simply says "<-- TRAIL". The user trail branches off maybe 10 feet before that sign to the right (north). If you're coming from the west (Green Lakes, Soda Creek, Todd Lake TH), the trail is about 10 feet after that sign to your left, and is maybe 1/4 mile after a moderately-annoying stream crossing. The trail junction is all out in an open pumice plain, and hard to miss. The user trail actually looks like the more like a maintained trail than the actual Broken Top Trail. After leaving the real Broken Top Trail, the user trail is very obvious for a mile or so, but then I lost it in the snow. At that point, the terrain is all open so going cross country wasn't a problem. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Chris

PS - Bugs were completely non-existent on Sunday!

[RobinB]

RobinB -

Yes, the trail junction is super obvious. If you're coming from the east (Broken Top TH), it's less than a half mile from the parking lot. The sign mounted to the post simply says "<-- TRAIL". The user trail branches off maybe 10 feet before that sign to the right (north). If you're coming from the west (Green Lakes, Soda Creek, Todd Lake TH), the trail is about 10 feet after that sign to your left, and is maybe 1/4 mile after a moderately-annoying stream crossing. The trail junction is all out in an open pumice plain, and hard to miss. The user trail actually looks like the more like a maintained trail than the actual Broken Top Trail. After leaving the real Broken Top Trail, the user trail is very obvious for a mile or so, but then I lost it in the snow. At that point, the terrain is all open so going cross country wasn't a problem. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Chris

PS - Bugs were completely non-existent on Sunday!

Wow, thanks so much Chris! That's exactly what I was looking for.

-Robin

[kepPNW]

9 AM on a Sunday, to me this is church

Amen, brother! Gorgeous report. I totally need to get down there. You don't happen to track your adventures on gps, do you? Would love to see where these places are on a map.

[mandrake]

Great TR -- like the shot of the crater with the signpost.

There's been a tremendous amount of melt on the lower slopes since I was up there a couple weeks back...
http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... 10&t=19398

[aircooled]

What wonderful reminders of how beautiful this area is! Makes me want to be back there now!

[nautachris]

9 AM on a Sunday, to me this is church

Amen, brother! Gorgeous report. I totally need to get down there. You don't happen to track your adventures on gps, do you? Would love to see where these places are on a map.

kepPNW -

I do actually track all my hikes, I just haven't really done anything with any of the GPX files recently. I have grandiose plans of finishing this tool I was writing for ArcMap that would automatically import the GPX track, then clip a bunch of data layers and spit out a map of the area, but things have been too busy. I'll happily send you the track files if you have any use for them.

Chris

[greglief]

Thank you for the trip report, photos, and fantastic captions!