Blogs

We spent the night at Elk Lake Campground. Highly recommend it if you can get a reservation. We were in spot 11 which had great views at sunset. 

From Bend take Cascade Lakes Highway to the Lucky Lake Trailhead. Fill out the free day use permit here (and put your Northwest Forest pass in your car window), then head up the trail. It's an easy 1.3 miles to Lucky Lake. There was some blowdowns a cross the trail as it's early season and they haven't been chopped yet. 

This was the first activation of Gollaher Mountain.  The USGS marker at the summit calls it Gollyer Mountain, though all maps and other information uses Gollaher. Someone has placed a register in a glass bottle under some rocks at the summit.  A lot of people have signed it. The drive to the summit is relatively straight forward, though somewhat long and requiring 4wd/high clearance (not Prius friendly/Subaru Outback’s may have issues with the deep ruts).

June 2023 Update: NF 9402 has been gravelled and runoff strips installed. In all other respects, previous reports still apply, however.

The last stretch of this driveup, on NF 9402 was previously reported as deep dust and silt. I'm happy to report that this road has been gravelled and water runoff strips installed for erosion control. This makes the drive pretty manageable. 

I was driving back to Portland from Northern California and taking Highway 97 for the scenic beauty. There are a number of 4 and 6 point summits in the region with easy-ish access, so I thought I'd try one or two along the way. A forest service employee recommended Orr Mountain, which has great views, a nice open area at the top and an active fire lookout. 

Pinnacle Peak is quite a drive, at which there is no real parking, and no trail, which I suspect is why it hadn't been previously activated - that and the two points. Fun nonetheless, a sense of accomplishment, and some good views to the east.

Closed to Activation July thru October.

In 2017, Eddy, the lookout attendant was surprised that we  made

 In 2017  this was not a drive up for us.

CG2000, off of Foster Creek Road has a new gate and a "road closed" sign blocking access to the Rock Creek trailhead at 45° 43.3671' N, 121° 56.0531' W.   The road is freshly graded, too, so I imagine that WA DNR sold the timber on the public land or the LLC that blocked CG2020 with a gate put this one up, too.

Access to the trailhead may be available via W-2000 on the west side of TRC. 

TL;DR - Posts on official Multnomah county blogs indicate that E Larch Mountain Road is closed at the ten mile gate for 2023, see:  larch mountain road closed  and  multnomah county larch mountain, so this hike starts at the gate.  Note that it requires a 1.6 mile traverse along the road before turning onto FS road 315 (which intersects with trail