'Twixt Red & Devils: Echo Lake

Klamath National Forest

Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3

static map — Purple line for day 3. Click for interactive map

While the faint upper portion of West Fork Seiad Creek Trail wouldn't be so hard to follow now that we knew it a little and the lower part is apparently maintained by biologists interested in Baker cypress, the memory of the drenching from the bushes in the short section of the middle led us to the decision to get up early and make the rather longer road walk back down to the car. Besides, new views!

101: red rocks — Kangaroo Mountain, looming over camp, looks pretty red in the early light.

102: colors in the east — Meanwhile, in the east, a shadow of a big mountain and colors.

Once breakfasted and packed up, it was a little lighter and the rocks had become a little yellower compared to the Red Butte.

104: small pond in the grass below rocks — The local pool to our camp, which is definitely has springs in the bottom.

106: small pond in snow still — A look back to the only pond that was frozen.

107: fog and higher layers — The valleys are still full of fog, and probably smoke.

108: high point above — Around to look at the Red Butte over Lily Pad Lake again.

109: little lake below — Lily Pad Lake, now in sunlight.

111: snow on a trail — Trail where we didn't pass is still devoid of anything but animal footprints.

We passed by the West Fork Seiad Creek Trail with its disintegrating marking and on toward an area labeled "Bee Camp" where we would have a look around.

112: lake below — A last angle on Lily Pad Lake.

113: ridge with a flat spot — Goodbye Lake should be in that flat high up the ridge, far left.

116: ice crystals — The snow was growing crystals in the night.

117: rugged rocks — The Red Buttes tower over Bee Camp.

118: camp and ridge — Bee Camp is the open spot on the left, based on the rock furniture.

119: swirls of light and lighter — Layered ice over a stream.

The Forest Service marks some extra dotted lines on their map, showing something below Lily Pad Road and the PCT coming over to Bee Camp and then a lot of the way down the creek. It stops mysteriously before getting to anything, but then so does the actual trail line. There's so much visible old road on the side, it seems reasonable to believe there might be a way down on some old road. Also reasonable to believe that as it goes on the north side of a ridge, it might be full of growth.

120: sharp red peaks — Taking in the Red Buttes from another angle. There's a suggestion that although the marker is on the right one, it's actually the left that is a little higher.

We didn't find the old road where we started looking, but eventually ran into it below Bee Camp. Once it starts really going along the side of the canyon, it became crossed with fallen trees, thick with snow, and choked with manzanita and more. It would not be an easier travel route than the one we came up. Any thought of following it was discarded and instead we followed the road and a spur up to Bee Camp.

121: road below Bee Camp — Following the old road up to Bee Camp. Large rocks line it where they were pushed clear.

So after that delay, we were back to hiking northbound on the PCT, as expected. We poked our heads over the edge where Horse Camp Trail drops down with a little spur to Echo Lake. The trail looked obvious enough at the top, but also steep and covered with ice. We hadn't brought our microspikes, but didn't regret it too much as we still had that long road walk ahead. We headed to the far end of the saddle where we could see the lake and had snacks.

123: snow on the edge of a saddle — The trail heads down on the far side where it is snowiest.

While we were there, I decided to give the camera another try. The batteries had warmed up enough to work for the rest of the hike.

124: lake below snow — Echo Lake from a little north of the saddle above it.

Once we got going, we found footprints on our trail. Someone had come up the trail with their dog, probably the day before, to overlook the very same view that we had been enjoying. In the late fall!

126: water leaking from a rock — A mystery drill hole leaks water as a spring.

127: road and buttes — Looking back to the Red Buttes. The obvious cut is Lily Pad Road, which has a parking area somewhere above Bee Camp.

I did a little bit of pondering the road on the far side of the canyon. It gets deep into some stream cuts and there's a couple waterfalls marked at those points. Something to look forward to while accepting the long road walk.

129: road across the far side of the canyon — A little bit of the long road walk down. It's a good gravel road, even for my Scion.

130: trail and road — The PCT winds down to Cook and Green Pass and the road winds up the other side.

Trail got a little scruffy when it got under the trees of Cook and Green Pass. It is obviously fire footprint there although there wasn't bad tree mortality. The pass itself had parking, a little camp site, and minimal signage to keep the PCT hikers heading off on the correct trail. There's also a Cook and Green Trail (AKA bear Gulch Trail) that heads down from the pass. We didn't get distracted by any of that.

133: burned canyon — There was a lot of tree mortality around much of the East Fork Seiad Creek.

The first waterfall, Ponytail Falls, wasn't much to speak of.

134: poor waterfall hiding — Ponytail Falls hides a bit, but there's not much to see.

The second waterfall, Horsetail Falls, was much nicer and came with a bonus waterfall.

135: taller waterfall, still not much water — Horsetail Falls is much taller and not hiding.

137: another waterfall — Just a little extra waterfall.

138: Horsetail Falls again — Horsetail Falls in context.

And so we wound our long, slow way down, wondering about the bright white rocks visible on the far side of the canyon, although we hadn't really noticed them while we were there. Wondering about all the flowers, although 2 of 3 were invasive. And wondering about the tree "selected for genetics" that had a metal poster informing us that "Unauthorized harvest of cones or vegetative material from this tree is prohibited."