Sunday, June 23, 2024
Today I hiked part of the Divide Trail in the Badger Creek Wilderness and afterwards I drove to the Flag Point Lookout.
It was 48 degrees when I arrived at the trailhead on Road 200 at 7:15am. (Road 200 is quite rough and is not suitable for low-clearance cars.) Not surprisingly there were no other cars around. I set off northwest on the Divide Trail. Although there was some blowdown to deal with, the trail was in pretty good shape:
I saw a few wildflowers along the way:
Mt. Hood peeking out from behind Lookout Mountain:
I reached a nice viewpoint that is not labeled on maps but which is often called Palisade Point:
View of the Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson:
View of Flag Point:
Plenty of stonecrop can be seen growing in and amongst the rocks:
Back at my car after that three-mile hike, I drove up Road 200 to visit the Flag Point Lookout. The gate that is 0.3 miles before the tower was open and the lookout on duty must have been on a grocery run or something.
There were some clouds swirling around:
But views of the Oregon Cascades were still visible:
Looking east to the dry side. Already brown and dry even though it’s not even July yet:
There’s an unmarked trail by the toilet that heads west:
I followed it 0.2 miles out to a wide open area with very nice views:
Broken Top and the Three Sisters:
Mt. Jefferson and Olallie Butte:
Mt. Hood and Lookout Mountain:
Looking out over the Badger Creek Wilderness (Badger Creek is down in that canyon below):
