Friday, June 21, 2024
While I was in the Umpqua National Forest I decided to see if I could reach the summit of Black Rock.
It’s a former lookout site just outside the northern boundary of the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness. The trail still shows up on topo maps but the Forest Service abandoned it at some point, possibly after the 2009 Rainbow Creek Fire, but it could have been back in 1965 when the lookout was removed.
It was a 2.6 mile drive up Road 950 to the Whitehorse Meadows Trailhead
Road 950 keeps going south from this point. The Forest Service attempted to gate it, but those efforts failed and the gate is now on the ground. The road seems to be popular with the OHV crowd and I saw at least half a dozen vehicles heading up there during my short time in the area:
Black Rock is visible from the trailhead:
I headed west down 950 until I came to the spot on my GPS were the old 960 spur was supposed to be. You can’t tell from the photo, but it’s there:
It becomes a little more obvious once you get away from 950:
The road actually goes further than indicated on the map. I followed it until it ended, then started making me way northeast along the base of the peak. As you can see in the photo below this area burned in 2009:
I thought that making my way through the burn was going to be a nightmare, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was able to weave my way around fallen snags and find a route. There were some nice wildflowers along the way:
I made my way over to the saddle east of the peak:
Then I started looking for old trail tread. It wasn’t long before I found it. Flowers were growing right on the trail in this spot:
On the rocky upper slopes the trail wasn’t hard to follow:
Buckwheat:
Just 0.4 miles from the point where I left 950 I was on the summit. The old foundation is still up here:
The light wasn’t good, but I think this old sign said “Black Rock” along with the elevation:
A cabin was built up here in 1911:
In 1926 a cupola was added:
In 1938 the old lookout was removed and an L-4 lookout was constructed, utilizing the concrete foundation:
That lookout was removed in 1965, but the foundation was built more than a century ago is still here:
There were several patches of penstemon growing up there:
The views are spectacular. The view to the northwest includes Twin Lakes Mountain. Below is Road 950 I drove to the trailhead:
View to the north:
To the northeast is Mt. Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and Diamond Peak:
Looking east:
The view to the southeast in the direction of Crater Lake includes Mt. Scott and The Watchman:
Looking south. Rattlesnake Mountain and Fish Mountain on the left. The distant snowy peak is Mt. McLoughlin in the distance. The three peaks in quick succession to the right of that are Weaver Mountain, Hershberger Mountain, and Jackass Mountain:
Looking southwest:
Looking west:
What a great spot! Too bad the Forest Service abandoned the trail. Later when I got home I looked at Google Earth and I think the old trail tread may still exit down low, right where the trail line on the map shows it should be. It’s faint, but it might be followable. Here’s my track:
And here is the 2015 satellite imagery showing the road angling off to the left and the trail angling off the road:
It’s been 15 years since the fire so who knows if the trail would even be followable, but I plan to check it out next time I’m in the area.
