Mount Elijah

We drove up to Oregon Caves National Monument this morning to hike up to Mount Elijah. We started by going counterclockwise up the Big Tree Trail Loop, then took the connector trail to the Lake Mountain Trail, continuing down the Mountain Meadows Trail and joining the Bigelow Lakes Trail back to the Lake Mountain Trail and returning down the other half of the Big Tree Trail. Overall we hiked 9.5 miles with 2,400 ft of gain. The Lake Mountain Trail and the loop around Mount Elijah are in the Rogue River Siskiyou National Forest. We only came across 3 other hikers today, all on our way out from Mount Elijah.

The Big Tree Trail goes over the Oregon Caves. These are false entrances to the caves.

Early on, we came across this doe and her fawn on the trail.

Up on the Lake Mountain Trail, we began to get some views to the south.

The trail goes right up over the top of Mount Elijah at 6,391ft.

Pano to the east and south from the summit of Mount Elijah, including a distant Mt Shasta

zoom of Mt Shasta in the far distance

Pano to the north and east from the top of Mount Elijah

As we continued down from Mount Elijah we could see one of the Bigelow Lakes in the meadow below.

We passed by some large patches of buckwheat.

some of the flora seen along the trail today: