Jefferson Park

After reading about it in a hiking book, Dan, Mark and myself decided to take a trip to Mt. Jefferson. You Take I-5 to Salem, drive east on highway 22, through the area with Opal Creek and the Elkhorn mining area, until you come upon Detroit Lake. Continue past it for about 15 miles until you get to a turn off to a small mountain service road. After about 10 miles and nearly 45 minutes of slow going bumpy roads we came to the Jefferson Park trailhead. There is a small parking lot where the Cascade trail crosses. The trail that we took is actually part of the cascade trail. It was a beautiful hike up, about 7 miles uphill but very rewarding once at the "Park". The park is the area at the timberline of Mt. Jefferson. There are many scraggly looking trees that wrap around Glacier melt water pools, some glaciers still remain even though it was august. Shortly put, it was an amazing dreamland of Sun, Snow, Trees, low-lying grasses and succulents among a maze of volcanic rock and glaciers. all for the exploring. BY FAR the coolest destination of any hike i have ever been on. I could easily spend all day up there. The area is actually a popular backpacking destination with a few designated campsites for backpackers. (sites designated by a wooden post, thats it)

Pictured:: Wildflowers, Glacier melt-water pools, A Stormy Mt. Hood, Wild 5 inch Succulents, Volcanic Rock and Cougar prints in the snow. Yes, Cougar. Not Dog. The print pictured was one of about 3, and was about 4 inches wide.