Outdoor Project

The glacially eroded Broken Top looms in the shadow of the South Sister. A number of options for a summit approach are available from the Green Lakes trailhead. A longer, less traveled trail leads to the east toward Todd Lake and winds through pockets of wildflowers.

Twisting as though it were frozen in the midst of a dynamic dance move, Mount Washington challenges worthy climbers to navigate five fifth-class rock pitches to the summit. Climbers begin their journey meandering through the remnants of the 2003 Booth Fire, where vegetation is returning with a powerful display of wildflowers blooming as late as August.  You'll see lupine, Indian paintbrush, penstemon rupicola, sea aster and Davidson's penstemon to name a few. The wildflowers soon give way to the crumbly basalt typical of volcanic plugs.

Whether you are visiting Bend for the first time or you are a longtime local, the short trek up this 480-foot extinct volcanic cinder cone is a must.  In fact, Bend is one of only three cities in the United States with a volcano within its city limits.*  The entire city of Bend visible from the trail, and so is much of Oregon.  From the top, you'll see an impressive panoramic display of the cascade peaks from Mount Hood to Mount Bachelor, Smith Rocks to the north and Newberry National Volcanic Monument to the south.

Reaching up into the deep blue sky, Three Fingered Jack's eroded, jagged summit lures climbers in for a technical, fifth-class mountain climb on one of the most picturesque Cascade volcanoes.  A 7-mile approach along a section of the Pacific Crest Trail meanders through the white faced snags that are the remnants of the 2003 Booth Fire.  The forest is slowly on its way to recovery, and a healthy variety of wildflowers can be seen along the trail as late as August: look for lupine, paintbrush, sea aster, and Davidson's penstemon to name a few.

People have been visiting the replenishing and tranquil hot springs along the Breitenbush River long before westerners started keeping records.  In a visit back in the 1880s, Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice John B. Waldo was so inspired by his experience that he wrote to then President Grover Cleveland:

Opal Creek is one of Oregon's most recently protected national treasures. After decades of controversy regarding the logging and mining possibilities of the area, local and national efforts to defend Opal Creek led to the successful passage of legislation led by Mark Hatfield in 1996. 

At more than 9,000 acres, Silver Falls State Park is Oregon’s largest state park, and it is home to Oregon’s second highest concentration of waterfalls after the Columbia River Gorge. To see this impressive collection of waterfalls, take the Trail of Ten Falls hike, starting from either the North Falls Trailhead or from the Silver Falls Lodge. Be sure to see the park's most visited waterfall, the 177-foot South Falls.

There are actually hiking trails on both sides of this newly created natural reservoir called Coldwater Lake, and both are excellent starting points and trails to access the limited, but very worthy, backpacking areas in Mount St. Helens National Monument*.  This trip report, however, focuses on the rather long but level 10.4-mile, there-and-back day hike on the lake's northern shore.  In fact, when visiting the National Monument, the trip along the lake's northern shore, paired with the short Hummocks Loop across Washington Highway 504, make a great introduction to the area.

It is easy to miss Ecola State Park if you are headed to Cannon Beach for a day at the coast.  The road to the park is a subtle turn just after the Cannon Beach exit, but this unassuming road leads to some of the best views, trails and beach access on the northern Oregon coast.

Most renowned for their design for New York City’s Central Park, the Olmsted Brothers* were commissioned by the City of Portland in 1903 to access its existing parks and to seek out opportunities to develop new ones.  Among those opportunities were Peninsula Park and Mount Tabor, but the chief contributing vision was the preservation of the land and hills now known as Forest Park.  According to the Olmsted Report, a “visit to these woods would afford more pleasure and satisfaction than a visit to any other sort of park.”  Although this vision for Forest Park was born long ago, the park wasn