July 1, 2011
After spending hours pouring over books and maps trying to find a 4th of July weekend destination where we wouldn’t encounter too much snow, we settled on the Oakridge area southeast of Eugene.
We headed down there Friday afternoon and snagged a campsite at the Black Canyon Campground, a few miles west of the Middle Fork Ranger Station. We got there a little before 5:00 and were worried we wouldn’t get a spot, but we had no trouble and in fact the campground never got close to full over the weekend, much to my surprise.
Before dinner we headed up to Deception Butte for a quick hike. You can hike up from the ranger station, or take the much shorter trail from Road 549, which is what we did.
Mosquitoes hovered around us from the moment we got out of the car, and I discovered that I had not packed either my headnet or my bug spray. Ack! So despite the warm weather I kept my long sleeves on and zipped on my pant legs.
The trail is pretty flat for the first 3/4 mile, but then it climbs VERY steeply up to the summit. I had not brought my hiking poles and regretted that decision big time!
The trail brought us to a viewpoint looking south out over the forest. There were also rhododendron and a few beargrass in bloom here. (And a geocache!)
The trail continued faintly towards the west and we followed it, where five minutes later we reached a beautiful sloping meadow with views to the west. Although the meadow looks dead and brown in the photos, it was beautifully golden in the evening light, and there were actually quite a few wildflowers blooming here.
We had views to the west where we could see the town of Oakridge below and Diamond Peak straight ahead.
We lingered here for a little bit enjoying the beautiful evening, but then headed back to the car so we could enjoy our wine and pesto pasta dinner back at the campground.
