{"id":3911,"date":"2021-07-20T14:00:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T14:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=3911"},"modified":"2021-07-21T14:45:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T14:45:23","slug":"strawberry-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2021\/07\/20\/strawberry-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"Strawberry Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday, July 4, 2021<\/p>\n<p>For our fourth and final hike in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness we hiked up Strawberry Mountain.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I think most people get to Strawberry Mountain via Strawberry Lake, which is a 12+ mile day (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonhikers.org\/field_guide\/Strawberry_Mountain_Hike\">hike description<\/a>). We did a much shorter route and returned to the Road&#8217;s End Trailhead where we had started the <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2021\/07\/14\/wildcat-basin\/\">Wildcat Basin hike<\/a> a few days earlier. The first part was along the same old road we had hiked before:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313093921_f218a1ca5c_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313093156_a085e39915_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then we reached the junction where the trail to Wildcat Basin went left and we turned right onto the Onion Creek Trail:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312348672_3588218dee_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Strawberry Mountain loomed before us:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313090941_e95dc959ca_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This was the only patch of snow we saw the whole trip. If not for the fact that Oregon is in a severe drought, I know we would have seen way more snow this weekend:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313294283_afb2595ec1_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This area burned in the 2015 Canyon Creek Fire, so there was no shade. The trail traversed a lovely slope dotted with wildflowers:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313305163_8cbb86440a_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312357982_1c0699f050_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51314105545_d1d9828755_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312355282_14f1362c93_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313829044_cceb26da95_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313300933_518f93f3ef_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313096101_1a124a469f_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Because of the burned trees we had a pretty great view looking west:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313830494_d9be08f37d_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Strawberry Mountain was visible ahead us for much of the time:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313828309_ef08601b39_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51314109555_23c5687c33_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313307213_257293b70b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This hairy woodpecker made quite a ruckus when we passed:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313306208_3c3b5b10b7_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Continuing on:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312365172_a52f7b1bf4_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking back along our route:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313310858_7721b8fe1e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At 2.6 miles we reached the junction with the Strawberry Basin Trail coming up from Strawberry Lake:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313309823_d09e04a8d1_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now the trail traversed the eastern slope of Strawberry Mountain:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313845639_0d65325a23_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313845249_95aef20be9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking back:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313844214_d3ef9468c3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There was some nice penstemon here:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313844634_2d7d5fbaf9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The trail entered the trees:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313112296_85131af9b0_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then at 3.3 miles we reached another junction. The Onion Creek Trail continued to the right and the summit trail headed up to the left:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312366212_52d6701897_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At the junction there was a viewpoint where we could see down onto Prairie City:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51314115660_120996ed66_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Last push to summit:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312367217_bee567ea2e_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Right as we reached the summit we could see some mountain goats on the slope below us. We got to see them for about 30 seconds before they turned a corner and disappeared. I used my point-and-shot to zoom in all the way and get these shots:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312377682_e70b59a1d4_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51314187070_79f10bed93_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking north along the summit. We went out to that point for a bit:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312471342_e65fde938d_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking back south along the summit:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313210491_a2d7aefea9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The area was hazy from California wildfire smoke, but we still had some pretty nice views. The green circular patch at center right in the photo below is the meadow we saw on the second half of our <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2021\/07\/14\/wildcat-basin\/\">Wildcat Basin<\/a> loop the other day (Wildcat Basin itself is out of sign behind that ridge):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51314218850_314bc673bd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking across the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness towards Canyon Mountain:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51314217710_dfaf955dd5_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking south:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51314207655_b4284efc10_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Looking east. Strawberry Lake is hidden out of sight down there:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312466482_2b0973f620_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There were so many butterflies flitting around the summit. You can see a few of them against the blue sky here:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313931779_4b4f839b65_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There was a fire lookout up here once, and we saw some of the remains:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312457912_7ccd276aa2_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We saw maybe a dozen other people come and go during our time up there. It was pretty warm up on the summit with almost no breeze so after hanging out up there for awhile we headed back down:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313411903_e0fb67546f_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the descent we got a good view of the Rabbit Ears, which you can see on the left:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313411008_512b3714b6_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Closer look:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51312464187_b79e657aa4_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As we hiked the Onion Creek Trail on the way back Greg left the trail to check out a spring on the map and it proved to be a lovely spot with a robust flow, so we got some water here:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51313205481_b633051827_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At the junction with the Road&#8217;s End Trail we turned for one last view of Strawberry Mountain before the final jaunt back to the car:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51314210565_3fd7344df7_c.jpg\" alt=\"Strawberry Mountain hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Great hike with great views!<\/p>\n<p>Gaia stats: 7.5 miles, 1,200&#8242; elevation gain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday, July 4, 2021 For our fourth and final hike in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness we hiked up Strawberry Mountain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[203,159,205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-malheur-national-forest","category-oregon","category-strawberry-mountain-wilderness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3911"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3937,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions\/3937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}