Santiam Lake

Saturday, August 24 – Sunday, August 25, 2019

With a gorgeous weekend weather forecast, Greg and I headed out for a one-night backpacking trip in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. Our destination was Santiam Lake. The shortest route to this lake is via the Duffy Lake Trail, but we wanted to visit Berley Lakes as well so we started at Santiam Pass.

The first 1.3 miles are along the well-traveled PCT. This area burned in the 2003 B&B Complex Fires:

Hiking through the burn

Hiking through the burn

There is no shade, but there are views

View through the burn

Crossing the wilderness boundary:

Wilderness boundary

Most of the summer wildflowers are done, but we saw pearly everlasting:

Pearly everlasting

And scarlet gilia:

Scarlet gilia

St. John’s Wort:

St. John's Wort

Asters:

Asters

We reached the junction with the Santiam Lake Trail and turned left:

Junction

We got a peek at Three Fingered Jack through the burned snags:

Santiam Lake Trail

We passed several of these snowmelt ponds:

Santiam Lake Trail

Views to the west:

Santiam Lake Trail

At 2.2 miles we passed a junction with the abandoned and unmaintained Santiam Lodge Trail:

Santiam Lake Trail

Hiking on through the burn:

Santiam Lake Trail

After 3.3 miles we left behind the burn and entered unburned forest:

Santiam Lake Trail

Santiam Lake Trail

We crossed this wide flat plain which was pretty cool:

Santiam Lake Trail

We passed another large pond on the left. There were a few campsites here:

Pond

We entered a meadow with a view of the top of Three Fingered Jack:

Three Fingered Jack

In that meadow we heard an elk call off to the left twice. We were super excited because how cool would it be to see an elk! We ran into hikers coming from the other direction. They wondered if it was hunters using a call because today was apparently the opening of the season. “Oh, I bet you’re right,” I told them, and we parted ways. Sure enough, a few moments later as we were peering across the meadow hoping for a sign of elk, we saw instead three hunters emerge from the trees. Nuts!

In that meadow is a junction with a sign stating “no fires within 100 ft. of lake”. The main trail heads left and we headed right to head down to the southern shore of the lake:

Junction

We've arrived!

5.6 miles from the trailhead we reached the lakeshore where we quickly found a nice campsite in the trees.

Campsite

The view from this part of the lake is great, with Three Fingered Jack visible to the east:

Santiam Lake

We could see the top of Duffy Butte:

Santiam Lake

We could also see the top of Red Butte with Mt. Jefferson behind:

Red Butte

A few asters blooming near our site:

Asters

After setting up camp we switched to day hiking mode and set off towards Red Butte. We continued north on the Santiam Lake Trail, then picked up the Dixie Lakes Trail, which soon crossed this huge meadow:

Dixie Lakes Trail

Back in the burn again:

Dixie Lakes Trail

We passed South Dixie Lake:

South Dixie Lake

South Dixie Lake

Then North Dixie Lake:

North Dixie Lake

North Dixie Lake

And then we hit the motherlode of huckleberries. The last quarter mile of the trail was lined with huckleberry bushes that were loaded with ripe huckleberries. Our pace slowed substantially as we gorged our way from one bush to the next. Delicious!

Picking huckleberries

Picking huckleberries

We reached Alice Lake:

Alice Lake

From Alice Lake we followed an old trail up the slopes of Red Butte. The trail seemed more like a once-official now-abandoned trail, rather than a user-created trail:

Hiking up Red Butte

In fact, I discovered that Red Butte was briefly the site of a fire lookout, so it would make sense for there to have been a trail here. But where it emerged from the trees into a burned area the trail goes straight up for a bit. I wonder if the old alignment disappeared in the mess of of downed trees in this spot. Fortunately that section was short and soon we were back on the old trail, traversing the slope:

Hiking up Red Butte

Hiking up Red Butte

Three miles from our campsite at Santiam Lake and we made it!

Three Fingered Jack

Looking east into the heart of the wilderness:

Looking east

Three Fingered Jack:

Three Fingered Jack

Three Sisters and Mt. Washington, and on the right in the distance is The Husband:

Three Sisters and Mt. Washington

Maxwell Butte, Mowich Lake, and Duffy Butte:

Mowich Lake

Panorama:

View from Red Butte

Looking northwest:

Looking northwest

We sat on the summit for awhile enjoying the awesome view. We had passed people coming down as we hiked up, and we shared the summit with a group of about six people, so this place is definitely not a secret. On our way down we checked out a short side trail that allowed us this view to the north with Mt. Jefferson and Jorn Lake:

Mt. Jefferson and Jorn Lake

We could even see the tippy top of Mt. Hood over the shoulder of Mt. Jefferson:

Tip of Mt. Hood

Heading down:

Three Fingered Jack

Back at the lake:

Santiam Lake

We made dinner and sat by the lake to eat. It was a really pleasant evening for sitting by a lake. We enjoyed watching this diving duck as he disappeared underwater and popped back up over and over:

Santiam Lake

The winds calmed and the lake became a nice mirror for Three Fingered Jack:

Santiam Lake

I got up to see the stars during the night. Amazing! Even though my polarizer was stuck onto my lens I went ahead and tried a shot anyway:

Santiam Lake

In the morning we awoke to partially cloudy conditions. Three Fingered Jack was mostly enveloped in clouds and mist swirled above the lake surface. It was actually pretty cool, and I ended up taking a lot of photos:

Santiam Lake

Santiam Lake

Santiam Lake

It hadn’t been cold, despite the misty conditions, but then it really warmed up as the sun started to come out. These trees looked beautiful backlit by the sun:

Santiam Lake

Santiam Lake

And before we knew it the clouds were burning off:

Santiam Lake

We sat by the lake for a long time enjoying the scenery.

Santiam Lake

Our friend the diving duck returned:

Santiam Lake

Santiam Lake

While Greg was packing I went for a wander. Campfires aren’t allowed within 100 feet of the lake, but I found this fire ring that was closer than that:

Santiam Lake

We started heading back at 10:40. On our way we took the side trip to Berley Lakes. The east end of Lower Berley Lake is closed for rehabilitation:

Closed for restoration

Looking west down the lake:

Lower Berley Lake

We reached the far west end of the lake where we took our packs off for a rest:

Lower Berley Lake

And enjoyed the mighty fine view of Three Fingered Jack:

Lower Berley Lake

I took the five minute trek over to Upper Berley Lake, which is pretty, but not as nice as the lower lake:

Upper Berley Lake

Upper Berley Lake

Then we made our way back to the main trail and hiked back to the car. This trail is covered in dust and volcanic ash so we both looked like Pigpen from Peanuts:

Dusty Trail

Our total for the weekend: 19.2 miles, 2,200′ elevation gain. While this route is longer than the route via Duffy Lake, I’m glad we did it so we could visit pretty Berley Lakes. It’s also far less crowded than the Duffy Lake Trail, although it’s incredibly dusty. It was a beautiful weekend!

SantiamLakeMap