June 23, 2018
Greg suggested we do the Iron Mountain loop hike today. It’s a very long drive from our home in Portland, so we got up at 4am, left at 5:10, and arrived at the Tombstone Pass Trailhead at 7:40. Despite the forecast (“Sunny, with a high near 64″… no mention of clouds) it was very cloudy:
We hit the trail at 8am. There were signs of recent trail maintenance:
The trail crosses Highway 20 and then switchbacks up through a forest with some pretty big trees. We emerged into one flower meadow and then a bit further came the big showy flower meadow. Awesome!
We started getting views of the surrounding peaks. Here is Browder Ridge (we hiked up there in 2011):
Iron Mountain, where the trail will take us in a few hours:
And still more wildflowers…
The trail leaves the meadow and heads over to Iron Mountain, circling around the north side over to the west side of that peak:
On the west side of Iron Mountain we picked up the spur trail to the summit and started climbing. Views started becoming abundant:
We could see the trailhead at the end of Road 35, which is an alternate place to start this hike:
Then we arrived at the summit! The last time I was up here was 2007 when the old fire lookout was still here:
Shortly after that visit the Forest Service removed it. Then they put in this nice viewing platform:
There were still a surprising number of clouds considering that the forecast didn’t call for any clouds. Fortunately we could still see some mountains. Mt. Jefferson:
Mt. Jefferson, Cone Peak, Echo Mountain, and South Peak:
Three Pyramids:
The Three Sisters:
A wider shot that includes Mt. Washington and the Three Sisters:
They’ve installed a map and mountain locater in the center of the viewing deck (although people were leaning on it like they were at a bar, so it was mostly unusable):
We hung out for awhile at the summit enjoying the views, but it was far from peaceful up there. There were quite a few people and most of them were pretty loud. There was one large group celebrating a birthday with champagne and they were basically having a party up there. We eventually decided we’d had enough of the din and started heading back down:
After we got back to the car we headed to nearby Echo Basin to do that short hike. The trail starts out by climbing steeply up an old logging road. Then it leaves the new growth from that logged area and enters the trees that surround the edge of Echo Basin. There was evidence of recent trail work here:
Yellow cedars grow here, which is pretty far south for this tree:
The trail splits to make a loop through the meadow. We crossed a stream and after climbing up through the trees the trail emerged into the meadows of Echo Basin:
We stopped on one of the boardwalks in the meadow, beneath which a little creek gurgled. Very pleasant And we spotted this little frog hanging out!
The trail heads back into the trees, but not before passing through some horrifically muddy areas. I ended up with mud above my ankle. We finished the loop then headed back to the car.
