I won't write a long trip report, just a heads up about excellent hike east of Salem/Albany. Made a 6.5 loop CCW at Iron Mountain (map) this past Sunday, starting at Tombstone Pass on HWY 20.
You visit 2 mountains on this loop - Iron Mt. (with summit) and Cone Peak (700 feet short of summit), see old growth forests, dry and wet meadows filled with different flowers, interesting geology. The flowers were good but on the decline, but in a couple of weeks there will be a lot of thimbleberry on the lower trail. If not the clouds, we'd see most of major Cascade volcanoes, but even the views of lower peaks around us were great on that day. The forest around Iron Mt looks much less clear-cut than around here. Iron Mtn seems to be very popular hike from its upper trailhead, but on the rest of this loop we didn't meet many hikers.
Big catch is, as you make the east crossing of the highway, the trail on the other side is not exactly across the road, but 50 yards to the left, not immediately visible.
Cone Peak. That whole ridge (except for this trail) is several summits with open meadows, and its mostly trail-less.
Cliffs below Iron Mt.
Viewing platform on the top of Iron Mtn, where lookout tower used to be
Iron Mountain loop 7.20.14
Re: Iron Mountain loop 7.20.14
Nice tr roman that's a good find we spend time down that way every year and I'm always looking for a new place to explore.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
The downhill of the mind is harder than the uphill of the body. - Yuichiro Miura