Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Strawberry Basin Trailhead
- End point: High Lake
- Hike type: Loop
- Distance: 17.0 miles
- Elevation gain: 4500 feet
- High point: 8,320 feet
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Seasons: July to October
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: Yes
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
The Strawberry Mountain Wilderness is a fairly small, generally uncrowded wilderness area in Eastern Oregon, a few miles south of John Day and Prairie City. This backpacking loop in the wilderness includes the best of the Strawberries. It goes up to a number of high passes and then down to scenic lakes. Early in the season, around mid-summer, there are plenty of streams for drinking water, but later in the summer drinking water becomes harder to find.
The area becomes accessible a little earlier in the season than the Cascades. However, it can also be hot and mosquito infested. There isn't the more alpine feel like the Wallowas or Elkhorn Crest, which are about the same distance away and may be better destinations. Large areas of the wilderness have experienced big fires in recent years.
Strawberry Lake is the one large lake. It's about one mile from the trailhead, so don't expect solitude. The lake is large enough for you to be able to find a semi-private campsite even if there are many people around. Just keep going a distance past where the trail first reaches the lake. The lake is large enough to provide some cool respite if the temperatures are hot.
There are many other trails in the Strawberries. This loop I think is the most traveled and the best maintained. Trails in the center of the wilderness can be quite faint. Also, you'll probably find a lot of trees across the trail in places, especially in the burn areas. You need to wear long pants because there are stretches with a lot of brush to plow through.
Detailed Description
You will begin your backpack at the popular Strawberry Basin Trailhead. At the kiosk at the parking area, fill out your wilderness permit, and then hike up the Strawberry Basin Trail #375 in a coniferous woodland carpeted with huckleberry bushes. You'll enter wilderness only about 200 yards from the trailhead. The tread continues up this slope to make a couple of wide switchbacks. About a mile from the trailhead, come to the first Strawberry Basin-Slide Basin Trail Junction and keep right. (This is your return point for the backpacking loop.) After traversing along a slope, hike above the remains of the landslide that created Strawberry Lake to keep right again at the second Strawberry Basin-Slide Basin Trail Junction. Next, stay left at the Strawberry Basin-Strawberry Lake Trail North Junction to head along the east shore of Strawberry Lake. Shortly come to another trail junction: go right here to take the trail which hugs the shore. There are a number of popular campsites tucked into the woods here on the left side of the trail.
At the marshy south shore of Strawberry Lake, arrive at the Strawberry Basin-Strawberry Lake Trail South Junction. Make a left here and then, after 45 yards, go right to join the main Strawberry Basin Trail as it crosses Little Strawberry Creek and then heads up the Strawberry Creek valley. After about 3/4 mile you'll arrive below Strawberry Falls, which splashes about 50 feet down a rock face. The trail makes two big switchbacks from here to cross Strawberry Creek on a footbridge and come to the Strawberry Basin-Little Strawberry Lake Trail Junction at 6,600 feet elevation.
It's about 0.5 miles and 150 feet of elevation gain to Little Strawberry Lake. There are a number of campsites there. The lake is pretty small, so if there's a noisy group there, there's no way to get away from them. Keep your eyes on the cliffs above. If you hear rockfall, then look carefully and you may see mountain goats. (The mileage given for this trip includes the diversion to Little Strawberry Lake.)
Return to the junction, and head left on the Strawberry Basin Trail. In another quarter of a mile, you'll get a clear view from the ridge down to Strawberry Lake. Soon after this, pass across a spring-fed meadow that blooms with paintbrush, bog orchid, monkshood, and monkey flower in summer. Continue up the slope on dry meadows that host sagewort, penstemon, subalpine daisy, columbine, lupine, and Oregon sunshine. The gradient becomes gentler as you skirt a lush meadow that offers views ahead to Strawberry Mountain. This wide bowl contains the headwaters of Onion Creek. Above the meadow, look for the collapsed remains of an old cabin to your left: near here, you'll find a couple of good camping spots and the year-round Strawberry Spring. The trail now traverses up a dry, open slope offering views to the north and east and crosses over the rocky ridgecrest into a whitebark pine parkland with many dead and dying trees. Lupine, yarrow, and Oregon sunshine form a pretty carpet. You'll continue to ascend on the west side of the crest until you come to the signposted Strawberry Basin-Onion Creek Trail Junction. This is the high point of the hike (unless you're heading to Strawberry Mountain) and is 4.8 miles from the trailhead.
If you're interested in summiting Strawberry Mountain, bear right here on the Onion Creek Trail to head north. It's about a mile to the 9,038-foot summit, and you will turn off the Onion Creek Trail for the last set of switchbacks (see the Strawberry Mountain Hike).
Otherwise, bear left at the junction to head south on the Onion Creek Trail. The trail makes an open traverse for 1.3 miles on the west side of the ridge looking down into the basin formed by the East Fork Indian Creek. At mile 6 from the Strawberry Basin Trailhead, you'll reach an old trailhead at the end of a decommissioned lookout road at 7,940 feet in elevation. There's an excellent view back to Strawberry Mountain from here.
Follow this road now for 1.2 miles. The track crosses a series of seeps that bloom with monkey flower and penstemon in summer. You’ll pass through an area of bleached snags from the 1996 Wildcat Fire. Clark's nutcrackers flit among the whitebark pines and subalpine firs. Finally, you'll reach the boulder barrier at the Roads End Trailhead at 7.2 miles from the start of the hike. Bear left on FR 1640, and head up a third of a mile to the High Lake Rim Trailhead at 8,000 feet in elevation.
From this trailhead, the Skyline Trail #385 goes down to High Lake at mile 8.7 and 7,500 feet elevation. High Lake is a small lake nestled below Indian Spring Butte and the distinctive Rabbit Ears. North of and hidden behind Rabbit Ears is Little Strawberry Lake. There are a couple of campsites at High Lake. It's only a mile from the trailhead, so you might see some day hikers and fishermen. The cliffs above the lake are spectacular. So far in the 21st century, three different fires have burned around or near High Lake.
From High Lake, follow the Skyline Trail and signs to Slide Lake. The trail goes up to the edge of the cirque and a high point at 8,150 feet and 10 miles from the trailhead. There are great, close views of the Rabbit Ears from here.
From here you'll descend to 7,950 feet in elevation and a junction with the Mud Lake Trail. Keep left here to stay on the Skyline Trail. You'll want to head north at first on a fairly faint trail. Then the trail switchbacks down, losing 800 feet from the junction to pass above Slide Lake. A short trail spins off for that lake. At mile 12.1, 6,800 feet in elevation, the Skyline Trail crosses a creek and reaches a junction with the Slide Basin Trail. Keep left on this trail to complete your loop; turning right would take you to Slide Mountain on the Skyline Trail. (The latter is also part of the recommended horse route on this loop, which reconnects with the Slide Basin Trail and avoids the higher rough and narrow tread and some exposure.)
The trail makes a high open traverse on a narrow, rough, and rocky tread. At mile 12.9, elevation 7,000 feet, is a high point at the north end of a ridge. There are really nice views. There are places you could camp if you wanted, but there's no water nearby. TheSlide Basin Horse Trail also reconnects here. It's only another mile back to the Strawberry Basin-Slide Basin Trail Junction below Strawberry Lake. Turn right at that junction to reach the trailhead and your vehicle.
For current info call:
Malheur National Forest John Day 541-575-3000
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Restrooms at trailhead
- Fee campground at trailhead
- Self-issued wilderness permit
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Strawberry Lake Trail #375 (USFS)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Strawberry Mountain and Monument Rock Wilderness
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; Bureau of Land Management: Southern Blue Mountains
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Malheur National Forest
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Loop Hike
- Strawberry Wilderness loop and Strawberry Mountain (9/8/2023)
- Strawberry Mountain Loop 9/16/2021
- Strawberry Mt loop
- Strawberry Mountain Loop
- Slide Mountain Trip
- Strawberry Mountain 07-Aug-2010
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this destination
- 100 Classic Hikes in Oregon by Douglas Lorain
- Eastern Oregon Wilderness Areas by Donna Ikenberry Aitkenhead (partial)
- Oregon's Wilderness Areas by George Wuerthner
More Links
- Strawberry Basin Trail #375 (USFS)
- Onion Creek Trail #368 (USFS)
- Skyline Trail #385 (USFS)
- Slide Basin Trail #372
- Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Loop (Outdoor Project)
- Three Days in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness (Travel Oregon)
- Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Loop (NorCal Hiker)
- "Adventure into Eastern Oregon's Strawberry Mountain Wilderness" (Statesman Journal)
- Strawberry Basin Trailhead (USFS)
- Strawberry Falls (Northwest Waterfall Survey)
- Strawberry Mountain Wilderness (USFS)
Contributors
- retiredjerry (creator)