Adding to the game of Dodge 'Em, a doe Mule Deer also walked casually across in front of us. Having spent the vast majority of my life on the East Coast, I am always really surprised by the large size of Mule Deer. The does are just about as big as the White Tail bucks that I am used to.
On our drive in we saw big patches of Monkeyflowers blooming purple and Nuttall's Linanthus in white mounds all along the roadside. It is really a beautiful climb from highway 97 up to Paulina Lake, a gain of about 2000 feet over 13 miles.
The hike started from the Visitors Center in the forest which was predominantly Lodgepole Pine. In the more open areas, we started to see little patches of lupines. We have 21 species that have been reported in this area and I hardly know one from the other, except for the very tiny and distinctive Dwarf Mountain Lupines which in this area, were no more than 2 inches tall.
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| Still Life with Lupine |
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| Dwarf Mountain Lupine, Lupinus lyallii |
As we climbed, other trees started to intersperse with the Lodgepoles, the odd spruce, fir, and hemlock. And before we knew it, we were in a section of old growth Western Hemlock. The hemlock would dominate the forest nearly all the way to the top.
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| Mount Jefferson over Paulina Lake Lodge Marina |
No trip to this area would be complete without a mention of obsidian. This volcanic glass is terribly common and we started seeing it on and beside the trail about halfway up to the peak.
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| Obligatory Obsidian Photo |
After swinging southwest and west through the trees climbing up onto the crater rim, the trail swings back east and opens up a bit. At this point, volcanic features start to appear in earnest. The trail passes a few spires of harder rock still standing proud of the crater rim. The photo below is our first view of East Lake. If you click through to enlarge the photo, you can see the sun glinting off the small knob of obsidian to the right. Beyond it in the distance, you can see the tongue of the Big Obsidian Flow protruding just below East Lake.
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| Paulina and East Lakes; Sun Glinting off Obsidian Knob |
As the trees thinned out, the predominant wildflower in bloom was Davidson's Penstemon which forms large mats of short plants with mouse-eared leaves covered in a profusion of the most beautiful purple blossoms. Penstemons are so terribly common here that many people overlook their beauty. With 28 possible species at Paulina Peak, it is hard to narrow down to the species level. Fortunately, Davidson's Penstemon is pretty distinct in form. The small mats that we started seeing along the trail were a mere tease for what we were to encounter at the top.
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Still Life: Pine Cones, Hair Cap Moss (Polytrichum juniperinum), and
Orange Peel Fungus (Aleuria aurantia) |
Soon after as we headed east up the ridgeline of the crater, the full expanse of the Big Obsidian Flow came into view. As you can see in the photo below, it appears almost as if a giant had poured a bucket of mud onto the ground where it spread slowly and dried in place. The obsidian flow is very young, geologically speaking, having occurred about 1300 years ago. Obsidian happens when silica-rich lava cools very quickly to form black volcanic glass. A park ranger told me that his theory was that the lava flow happened in the winter when it was very cold. Makes sense to me.
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| The Big Obsidian Flow |
Just at the point where we were able to observe the Big Obsidian Flow and East Lake in their entirety, we came out of the relatively damp and dense hemlock forest into an open sandy scabland crowned with Whitebark Pines, a species that I was on the lookout for, really never having had a chance to see them up close.
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| A Young Whitebark Pine, Pinus albicaulis |
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| Whitebark Pine |
The endangered pines are clearly related to White Pines; the smooth whitish grey bark and bundles of five needles are a dead giveaway. These pines grow very slowly, attain great age, only grow at high elevation and so are threatened by climate change, and are under siege by fungal and insect pests.
As soon as we left the hemlocks and entered the pines, the air erupted in raucous squawks of Clark's Nutcrackers, which love to feed on the Whitebark seeds. In fact, these gregarious birds are primarily responsible for reseeding the pines via their forgotten caches of seeds. Although it was hard to see for the tree cover, I would guess that we were standing among a group of about a dozen of the big birds.
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| Sandy Ground Crowned with Mats of Davidson's Penstemon |
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| Yet Another Scenery Change, A Beach at 7800 Feet |
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| Whitebark Pine |
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| Ample Lookout Perches for Clark's Nutcrackers |
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| Another Rock Spire Near the Summit |
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| Exiting the Tree Line |
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| Pink Mountain-Heather, Phyllodoce empetriformis |
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Littleleaf Huckleberry (Grouse Whortleberry),
Vaccinium scoparium, Glowing in the Sun |
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| Finally, Flat Ground 15 Feet Below the Summit |
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| 360-Degree View at Paulina Peak Summit |
The trail approaches the summit mainly from the west via a rocky area. Emerging from the rocks, you spy a large parking lot and viewing area further to the east. People can drive to the summit depending on the snow conditions and road repair. This year, the road has been open about a week, fairly late in opening. From where the trail reaches the summit plateau, it is a further rock scramble of about 15 feet in elevation to get to the very top. Interspersed in the rocks along the way to the very top are small patches of wildflowers.
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| Paintbrushes (Castilleja sp.) Appear at the Summit |
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| Nuttall's Linanthus, Linanthus nuttallii |
As we moved further east away from the rocks and into the viewing area, I noticed that the patches of flowers were becoming larger and more profoundly beautiful. Vast mats of resplendent penstemons were everywhere, becoming intermixed on the far east side of the parking area with stands of low-statured paintbrushes.
While I was photographing the red and purple hillside, I noticed a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel pop out from behind a rock a few feet away from me. What I did not realize is that I was standing nearly atop the entrance to its burrow. As I watched, it brought a mouthful of something (probably a bit of pine cone) to the burrow at my feet and disappeared below ground.
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| Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel, Mouth Full |
The top offers 360 degrees of astounding views. Arguably, the best views are to the north and west of the Cascade peaks to the west of Bend. And as a bonus today, through the atmospheric haze, we could see all the way to Mount Hood, 118 miles north as the crow flies.
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| Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters |
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| Mount Hood, 118 Miles Distant |
From the top, though it is possible to follow a loop trail back to the lake where we were parked, we headed back down the way we had come. The day was getting warm and we had already had our fill of sun up above the tree line. My knees hate downhill and I was really glad an hour later to be back at the parking lot.
As we approached the parking lot, I saw a Robin with a mouthful of food make a beeline for a short Lodgepole pine. I quickly spotted the nest and three babies jockeying for food. That a robin will approach the nest directly is unusual. Usually, a robin will follow a circuitous path to obscure the location of the nest from any would-be predators.
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| Robin Feeding Babies |
The hike to Paulina Peak is pretty doable by most people in reasonable shape. The first third is easy, the second third is really steep (with coming down harder than going up), and the final third is moderate. The views at the top are hard to beat for such a short hike.
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