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:

  

  

  

 

No NameTrail and Big Tree Trail at Oregon Caves National Monument

 We drove to Oregon Caves National Monument to hike a couple of short loop hikes before the afternoon rain. On the drive up, we saw several wild turkeys on the road.

 We hiked the No Name Trail Loop and the Big Tree Trail Loop for a total of 5 miles with 1,550 ft of gain. We only saw 2 rangers and no other people in the park today.
The trails are very well marked. We started on the No Name Trail.

 We saw lots of violets

 and well over a hundred calypso orchids!!!

 Small covered bridge along the trail.

Cave Creek runs under the covered bridge

 Loved this bench in this boulder alcove.

 On of the two small waterfalls along No Name Creek

 The second waterfall was covered by lots of downfall.

Small waterfall near the visitor center on our way to Big Tree Trail.

 Blind leads in the cave system

 A short ways up the Big Tree Trail was this lovely overlook.

 small empty wasp nest along the trail

 Very pleasant forest walk.

 I love the flowers on this bush, we saw several of these plants along the way.

 Small creek along a spur trail

 We found a small snow patch on the trail.

 The currants were in bloom.

 This is noted as the largest diameter Douglas fir known to be in Oregon

millipede

 snail

















This stellar jay greeted us as we enjoyed our lunch at the end of our hike.
















Some of the wildflowers and fungi we saw along the trail today: