Green Lakes

As relative newcomers to Bend, Oregon, we are not yet super familiar with all the areas there are in which to hike. And so we scour the web for ideas of places to go. One of the ones that we bookmarked long ago was the Green Lakes hike, which is an out-and-back hike between the trailhead on Cascade Lakes Highway and the Green Lakes. The Green Lakes are a set of three small lakes in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area nestled between South Sister and Broken Top. This is a super popular hike and as a result the trail is in danger of being loved to death. To combat this, the Forest Service requires a Central Cascades entry permit to limit traffic.

Green Lake and South Sister

I tried many, many times over the course of late July and August (still snow into early July this year) to get us tickets, but I always missed the window in which tickets were still available. These tickets open up in two-day windows, 48 hours beforehand, starting at 7am. Finally, I awoke at quarter to 7 on Monday and was able to book tickets for Wednesday, with a mad dash downstairs to find my wallet at 7:01. I did not count on recreation.gov not storing credit card numbers with accounts. Unlike Ann, I am not a person who can or does memorize credit card numbers.

Unfortunately, and despite our hopes for cooler temperatures at the end of August, Wednesday corresponded with another heat spike, so we got up early and headed out for the half-hour drive out Cascade Lakes Highway to the trailhead. As we neared Mt. Bachelor, we could see an ominous pinkish grey mass of clouds on the southwestern horizon.

These clouds, for those of us who live in the West, are unfortunately all too recognizable as smoke, this being smoke from the Cedar Creek fire just southwest of us. Lightning started this fire on August 1 and it was burning slowly without endangering anything while being monitored by the Forest Service. Suddenly, last evening it exploded once again. It would prove to be a fairly bad fire.

We arrived at the Green Lakes Trailhead on the north side of Cascade Lakes Highway just opposite Sparks Lake about 8:25 in the morning and after getting our gear together, were at the trailhead at 8:30. Two Forest Service trail hosts were at the trailhead checking entry permits and about a mile or so up the trail, we also encountered a back country ranger who checked our permits again. The permit process takes all the spontaneity out of back country adventures, totally eliminating the "Where shall we hike today?" option, but has really done its job of limiting the hordes of people trampling to death our most popular trails.

The Popular Trails into the Three Sisters Wilderness
Require Central Cascades Entry Permits

After chatting with the trail hosts for a couple minutes while giving the foursome in front of us some time to get down the trail, Ann and I set off north up Falls Creek in the direction of the Green Lakes. Falls Creek originates at Green Lakes, roughly 1500 feet above, and empties into Sparks Lake, delivering snowmelt from both South Sister to the west and Broken Top to the east into Sparks Lake, where it ultimately filters through the porous volcanic soil into the Deschutes River.

Initial Creek Crossing

Dressed as we were for temperatures in the 90s, the initial part of the walk in the creek bottom was very chilly (in the upper 50s), the creek being a natural trough that funnels cold air off the surrounding hillsides. As we crossed the creek on a log bridge and ascended the hillside up above the creek, we warmed fairly quickly. As we headed upstream, we encountered small waterfall after waterfall, reminding us very much of following Tumalo Creek up into the hills.

Lewis' Monkeyflower, Erythranthe lewisii, Growing on Logs in Creek

Arrowleaf Groundsel, Senecio triangularis, Growing Creekside

Shale: Highly Unusual in Volcano Country

The initial part of the hike along the lower part of the creek found us in a mixed forest of mostly smaller Lodgepole Pines, with a few true firs and hemlocks interspersed. As we climbed though, the woods became almost entirely old-growth Mountain Hemlock. I am always impressed by these giant conifers whose bark reminds me of hardwood trees and not at all of conifers.

Mature Mountain Hemlock Bark

And unfortunately as we climbed, we climbed right into the path of the smoke that we had seen earlier. The smoke was really the only damper on a delightful day, although it was never really horrible. And fortunately, it had mainly blown off on our return trip in the afternoon. It would be much worse on Thursday and in that sense, being at the mercy of the permit system, we lucked out on a relatively smoke-free day.

As we climbed, similar to following Tumalo Creek, we found the creek flowing gently through upland meadows as Tumalo Creek does through Happy Valley. After walking through a few delightful meadows, we went back into the woods and started to climb much more seriously.

Falls Creek Widens in Upland Meadow

Cooling off in the Creek

Fireweed, Chamaenerion angustifolium

Showy Monkeyflower, Erythranthe decora

Lewis' Monkeyflower on a Gravel Bar
Amazingly Clear Water and Colorful Stones

First Glimpse of South Sister

Rare Water Parsley, Oenanthe sarmentosa, Bloom
Most Has Already Gone to Seed

Hoverfly on Glaucous Penstemon, Penstemon euglaucus

Glorious Red Elderberry, Sambucus racemosa

First Harbinger of Fall
Davis' Knotweed, Aconogonon davisiae, Turning Red

A Paintbrush, Castilleja sp.

A Spring Plant in Bloom at the End of August
A Buckwheat, Eriogonum sp.

Gorgeous Patch of Asters

Every now and again as we climbed, we got peeks through the trees of a large lava dome to our west. As we would see when we climbed nearly to the lakes, the steep face of the lava dome was littered with obsidian, gleaming in the bright sun, vehicle-sized chunks having fallen into the creek whose east bank we were following. The vast lava field lacks any vegetation, opening the creek bottom to sun from late morning on. As a result, the banks are lined with short willows to the point of obscuring the water at times.

Lava Dome to Left, Creek Bottom Lined with Willows

Looking Back Downstream at a Cinder Cone (The Wife?)
Notice Lava Flow on the Right (west) Side

Car-Sized Obsidian Fallen to Creek Bottom

Vast Chunks of Obsidian Gleaming in Sun

Nearing the Lakes, South Sister Peeking out Above Lava Dome

Small Waterfall in Rill Coming Down from Broken Top

Senecio triangularis Detail from Previous Picture

Although the trail passes directly between South Sister to the west and Broken Top to the east, views of neither peak do not occur until near the end of the climb to the lakes. Early in the hike, South Sister is obscured by the trees and then later on, by the huge lava flow running alongside the trail. Broken Top stays hidden behind the trees pretty much all the way to the lakes.

South Sister Coming into View over Lava Field

Just at the lakes (there are three collectively known as the Green Lakes), we climbed a last short hill and topped out above the lakes, with South Sister coming into view on our left and a little farther down the trail, Broken Top to our right. The open ground surrounding the lakes is mainly gravel, no doubt glacial remains, inhabited by grasses and short alpine plants accustomed to arid conditions. This is in stark contrast to the deep hemlock forest and damp creek bottom that we walked through to get to the lakes.

Snow Remaining on South Sister

Open Gravel Surrounding the Lakes

Cobwebby Paintbrush, Castilleja arachnoidea

Alpine Buckwheat, Eriogonum pyrolifolium

Conferring with our map, we decided to walk down to the largest of the three lakes, then walk to a point opposite South Sister. From there, we would trace along the south side of the lake shore to the far side where we would head briefly south and pick up the north shore of the southernmost lake, a tiny thing really, with Broken Top sitting directly behind it, partially obscured by the ubiquitous wildfire smoke.

Largest of the Three Green Lakes

Amazingly Clear Water

Diving Ducks, Common Goldeneyes, I Think
Why is This Called Green Lake?

Broken Top Behind Southernmost Lake, Obscured by Smoke

More Ducks, Dabblers and Most Likely Mallards

Along the Lake Shore, Thousands of Dime-Sized Western Toads

A Very Large 6-7cm Black Tadpole

As we were walking along the shore of the largest lake, we spied two flowers that we had not yet seen, growing in the moist lakeside soil. The first was a yellow monkeyflower. While the pink Lewis' Monkeyflowers were pretty common, yellow ones were rare save for a few Showy Monkeyflowers growing further down the hill.

But up here at 6500 feet, this yellow one stood out. Monkeyflowers are terribly hard to identify at the species level, many looking for all the world like Common Monkeyflowers. This one stood out for having blooms in slightly different locations from the common ones, but they are known to interbreed, so who really knows? Or really cares, even? They are beautiful flowers as is the other flower that we found, the stunning Magenta Paintbrush. Although at this altitude and time of year, I expected to see a lot of these, we only saw the one plant.

Monkeyflower, Erythranthe sp.
Exhibits Axial Blooms Like Tiling's, E. tilingii

Stunning Magenta Paintbrush, Castilleja parviflora

An Unusually Wary Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel

The scenery at the lake being somewhat anticlimactic after the gorgeous creek-side walk through the forest and the heat getting up on the gravelly plains around the lakes, we decided to start back for the truck after perhaps 20-30 minutes at the lakes. In the warmer temperatures of the early afternoon, we saw a lot of butterflies, where we saw only very few in the morning.

Orange Sulfur on Aster

Hydaspe Fritillary on an Aster

We noticed a lot of horse apples and pony tracks in the dust all along the trail. Also, at each of the stream crossings, if there is a log bridge for people, there is a horse ford right next to it. This is one of the few trails we have been on to have been heavily trafficked on horseback. On our trip back down to the trailhead, we stood off to the side of the trail while three riders came up past us on their smallish horses.

Heading Back, Mount Bachelor Comes into View

A Final Look at the Largest Waterfall on the Creek

On the way back down, we had in mind to take the short side trail over to Moraine Lake at the south base of South Sister, but Ann's feet were bothering her a bit, so we continued on to the truck at the trailhead where it was 78 degrees, a delightful temperature. This temperature would hold all the way up to Mt. Bachelor. As we descended back towards town, the temperature would go up with every little bit of descent, reaching 92 as we entered Bend.

Over a couple of sours in the shade of the trees at Crux, we tried to rank where this hike falls in the list of the hikes we have taken here in our short duration in Bend. Clearly, it ranks right up at the top with our hikes at Jack Lake/Canyon Creek/Three-Fingered Jack and the North Fork Trail up to Happy Valley along Tumalo Creek. There is no doubt that we will continue to do this hike in the future and perhaps combine it into a loop hike using the Broken Top and Soda Creek Trails.