Trip Report:Tour of the High Cascades- California to Washington, June 20, 2024
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2025 11:30 am
We finally made time to explore the volcanoes of the Cascade Range north of the Sierra Nevada. Since a young age, I had been drivin all around the Oregon Cascades by my Oregonian Grandfather, and his brother, my truly great Uncle Ed, who lived out in wild Eastern Oregon. I was fascinated by the snow capped look of those Cascade peaks, and also by some of their names: "Three Fingered Jack," "Broken Top," and since I was a teenager-- "Bachelor and The Three Sisters"-- Oh my! We hardly got out of the car on these mammoth driving tours, and if we did, it was to fire Grandpa's rifle and pistols. Uncle Ed had a deep appreciation for wild animals, and took me up on Hart Mountain to see vast herds of Pronghorn Antelope, who left dust clouds behind them as they ran! Together, Grandpa and Uncle Ed managed to transfer to me a fascination for geology, wildlife and mountain country, so I was primed to return and explore some of these volcanoes.
This venture became another of Lizzie and my odd, spontaneous trips, because in the beginning our early summer plan had been to drive into Idaho to backpack in the craggy granite Sawtooth Range. In speaking by phone to an Idaho ranger, I got the distinct impression that in June, the route we wanted to travel was going to be a cold, slushy snow nightmare. Since we were still keen to travel, we quickly switched to our other goal-- to see, and ramble around in the volcanic Cascade Range. Our plans were loose, and some of the access routes to the Cascades were also going to be challenging.
Unfortunately, our own 3 week tour (Me, Lizzie and Bearzy and Wolfie) also became mostly a drive by, with wild camping sites, day hikes, and scrambles on a few choice ridges of these volcanic areas. We took our old Plymouth van again, and took our time by traveling back roads and quiet highways. Having the dogs with us precluded backpacking in the National Parks of Crater Lake and Washington's Mt. Rainier N.P., and our final destination-- Olympic National Park. My lofty goal was to climb Mt. McLoughlin, Mt. Thielson, and all of the Sisters. Instead, we gazed up at the first two beautiful snowy mountains, and due to the combined challenges of long hikes in mosquito hell and high water to reach them, and our dog Bearzy's worsening seizure condition, we set our sights lower down the mountains. This trip became Bearzy's last travels, and at the end of it, when we finished with a backpacking trip in the Sierra, he sadly was finished too. Sad, sad, but now we realize that it was a magical month of being so close together. We spent every moment of every day together, and we slept in a pile with the dogs in the van each night. I am still gutted by the loss of our dog friend.
.... This morning, I am picking up the dropped threads of this trip report. It's been 2 months since writing about Bearzy above, and we are now in our fourth wonderful week with a wild new dog friend, who even reminds us of Bearzy. Soon (when we are sure "Sierra" will not run off!) she will be gracing the images like the Coyote-Red Wolf cross that she appears to be. I use the word appears loosely, as she is much more likely to be a street mix of Siberian Husky - Australian Cattle Dog - Kelpie, and god knows what else, but she has that great wild dog look. We finally felt ready to add a new big dog to our lives, in large part to have a playmate for Wolfie, and that is working out really well!
Sierra is a challenging big pup, who is ~11 months old. She was abandoned, and living on the street; we got her from a shelter, and are now confident that she will work out. Okay, enough of the too personal bits about our life with dogs, let me share what we saw and learned about the next big range north of our Sierra-- The High Cascades.
We began with Mt. Shasta, the second Cascade giant after Mt. Lassen.
Travel partners Lizzie, Bear, and Wolfie. Castle Crags are seen to the right. We were drawn farther west of Castle Crags by some bigger peaks, and the hope of a great viewpoint campsite. We had the great luck to see a glossy black Black Bear just off the road!
From a high ridge we could see the Trinity Alps to the west.
I had hoped to summit one of these peaks.
Aiming for a mountaintop, I climbed into this notch, and then above on sketchy rock, till I opted for discretion over stupidity.
Shasta from the north.
Mt. McLoughlin, the first Oregon Cascade Volcano on our list.
The view is from our beautiful camp by Fourmile Lake. You'll note the headnet on my wife. Lizzie states that for her, this was the very worst clouds of mosquitoes ever!
The state of Oregon is composed of more volcanic rock than any state except for Hawaii. Western Oregon is part of the "Pacific Ring of Fire," Oregon lies on the northeast edge of that "Ring," where the Juan de Fuca plate is slipping beneath the North American plate. The Cascade volcanoes arise east of the plate boundary, and the area is known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone. This is just one of many of Oregon's volcanic areas, each with their own history. The uplift of the High Cascades began (by most accounts) between 5 and 10 million years ago. There have been some very dramatic recent events, like the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, and Mt. Lassen, which blew multiple times between 1914 - 1917. However, the most dramatic event was the eruption of ~12,000' Mt. Mazama about 7,700 years ago. This is the cataclysmic eruption that literally blew the top off the mountain, and then kept blowing till 50 cubic miles of rock and ash had been lifted off! The last of Mt. Mazama's base finally collapsed, leaving a crater over 3,000' deep! Crater Lake was formed over time purely through the accumulation of rainwater and snowmelt trapped in the elevated crater.
Crater Lake seen from the south west.
As you can see from the photos above, mountain walls rise up to 1600' above the surface of the lake, which is about 6,350,' and the lake is 1,949' at its deepest. Crater Lake is called the 11th deepest lake in the world, and judged by its "mean depth" of 1.157' it is 5th in the world (Lake Tahoe is the 6th at 1.009'). [* If you want to check out the world's most fascinating lake (IMO), go to this link to see images and read about Antarctica's Lake Vostok. I got interested in Vostok since it recently pushed Crater Lake out of 10th place on the lake list. Among other oddities, deep Lake Vostok seems to begin below sea level, with 2.5 miles of ice above! (* "The surface of this lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level.")
I find this is hard to imagine! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok ].
That is Mt. Thielsen in the distance, our next destination.
This venture became another of Lizzie and my odd, spontaneous trips, because in the beginning our early summer plan had been to drive into Idaho to backpack in the craggy granite Sawtooth Range. In speaking by phone to an Idaho ranger, I got the distinct impression that in June, the route we wanted to travel was going to be a cold, slushy snow nightmare. Since we were still keen to travel, we quickly switched to our other goal-- to see, and ramble around in the volcanic Cascade Range. Our plans were loose, and some of the access routes to the Cascades were also going to be challenging.
Unfortunately, our own 3 week tour (Me, Lizzie and Bearzy and Wolfie) also became mostly a drive by, with wild camping sites, day hikes, and scrambles on a few choice ridges of these volcanic areas. We took our old Plymouth van again, and took our time by traveling back roads and quiet highways. Having the dogs with us precluded backpacking in the National Parks of Crater Lake and Washington's Mt. Rainier N.P., and our final destination-- Olympic National Park. My lofty goal was to climb Mt. McLoughlin, Mt. Thielson, and all of the Sisters. Instead, we gazed up at the first two beautiful snowy mountains, and due to the combined challenges of long hikes in mosquito hell and high water to reach them, and our dog Bearzy's worsening seizure condition, we set our sights lower down the mountains. This trip became Bearzy's last travels, and at the end of it, when we finished with a backpacking trip in the Sierra, he sadly was finished too. Sad, sad, but now we realize that it was a magical month of being so close together. We spent every moment of every day together, and we slept in a pile with the dogs in the van each night. I am still gutted by the loss of our dog friend.
.... This morning, I am picking up the dropped threads of this trip report. It's been 2 months since writing about Bearzy above, and we are now in our fourth wonderful week with a wild new dog friend, who even reminds us of Bearzy. Soon (when we are sure "Sierra" will not run off!) she will be gracing the images like the Coyote-Red Wolf cross that she appears to be. I use the word appears loosely, as she is much more likely to be a street mix of Siberian Husky - Australian Cattle Dog - Kelpie, and god knows what else, but she has that great wild dog look. We finally felt ready to add a new big dog to our lives, in large part to have a playmate for Wolfie, and that is working out really well!
The state of Oregon is composed of more volcanic rock than any state except for Hawaii. Western Oregon is part of the "Pacific Ring of Fire," Oregon lies on the northeast edge of that "Ring," where the Juan de Fuca plate is slipping beneath the North American plate. The Cascade volcanoes arise east of the plate boundary, and the area is known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone. This is just one of many of Oregon's volcanic areas, each with their own history. The uplift of the High Cascades began (by most accounts) between 5 and 10 million years ago. There have been some very dramatic recent events, like the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, and Mt. Lassen, which blew multiple times between 1914 - 1917. However, the most dramatic event was the eruption of ~12,000' Mt. Mazama about 7,700 years ago. This is the cataclysmic eruption that literally blew the top off the mountain, and then kept blowing till 50 cubic miles of rock and ash had been lifted off! The last of Mt. Mazama's base finally collapsed, leaving a crater over 3,000' deep! Crater Lake was formed over time purely through the accumulation of rainwater and snowmelt trapped in the elevated crater.
As you can see from the photos above, mountain walls rise up to 1600' above the surface of the lake, which is about 6,350,' and the lake is 1,949' at its deepest. Crater Lake is called the 11th deepest lake in the world, and judged by its "mean depth" of 1.157' it is 5th in the world (Lake Tahoe is the 6th at 1.009'). [* If you want to check out the world's most fascinating lake (IMO), go to this link to see images and read about Antarctica's Lake Vostok. I got interested in Vostok since it recently pushed Crater Lake out of 10th place on the lake list. Among other oddities, deep Lake Vostok seems to begin below sea level, with 2.5 miles of ice above! (* "The surface of this lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level.")
I find this is hard to imagine! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok ].