Rocky Top Hike

Looking west and down the Santiam River Valley

Looking north and into Elkhorn Creek Valley

Looking east at Sardine Mountain and Elephant Rock in the foreground with Buck Mountain in the middle and Three Finger Jack rising perfectly above it in the background

The weather was supposed to cool down for the weekend and I wanted to get a hike in with the twins before mountain conditions got dicey.  I chose to go to Rocky Top which had been on my list for a while.  It actually rained a couple days before we were supposed to go on the hike so I figured it would be perfect with all the smoke and dust washed out of the sky.  The sky did indeed turn out to be "clean," but it was partly cloudy so of all the Cascade Mountains, we could only see Three Finger Jack.  But the view to the west was great!

Detroit Lake and Big Cliff Reservoir as seen from Rocky Top

Because of the rain, the road to the trailhead actually deteriorated a bit and was really rough with lots of sharp rocks.  The twins got nervous, but even though it was steep and rough, I didn't bottom-out or get a flat.  And fortunately, we didn't meet any other vehicles coming the opposite direction.  Most of the area burnt in 2020 in the Beachie Creek Fire, so the views were expansive, but also just made everything look very steep and unforgiving.

Oh thank goodness there was cell phone service on top!  Ha!

We only ran into one group of hunters at the trailhead and one other couple on the trail itself.  Otherwise we had the place to ourselves which was nice.  Zephyr complained on the hike up and Zoe complained on the hike down, but we got to the top and back again without any issue besides Zoe's shoes kinda disintegrating.  Bonus, there were tons of huckleberries to pick along the trail which was fun.  At the peak itself, there used to be a fire lookout, but it was dismantled years ago and the only thing left is a chair.

We didn't spend too much time on the peak because we started to see distant rain squalls moving closer and closer towards us.  Once we got back to pavement, Zephyr slept the whole drive home.

Back on the home front, Dohnele got tasked with preparing and catering a dinner for a handful of winery owners and their guests which meant Dohnele got to prepare a bunch of meals out and try them on us.  My favorite was bacon-wrapped scallops.  Here it is with a salmon dish she also prepared.