Stadter Buried Forest views and upper Lost Creek Drainage Mt Hood

Discussions and Trip Reports for off-trail adventures and rediscovering lost trails
Post Reply
User avatar
pinecone
Posts: 47
Joined: August 26th, 2021, 2:50 pm
Contact:

Stadter Buried Forest views and upper Lost Creek Drainage Mt Hood

Post by pinecone » October 21st, 2021, 4:16 pm

October 8th
Starting from Timberline Lodge, Mt Hood.

I learned a good lesson on this trip, and that is that my camera will pretend to take photos and only announce that the storage card is not there on the back view panel, which I never look at. So time to keep a spare SD card buried in with my emergency kit that lives in my pack. I had set out towards Paradise Park with my long lens to get photos of the Stadter Buried Forest and found out en route. My cell phone zoom sufficed, and binoculars to get views at the buried trees, but a disappointment to only be capturing cell phone photos on an incredibly beautiful day.

The Stadter Buried Forest is an exposure of trees buried during the Timberline eruptive period, around 1700 years ago, similar to the exposed ancient forests on Mesa Terrace above White River and down along Lost Creek on Old Maid Flat. It is less well known than the others, as it's not viewable directly from a trail, but here's a nice paper on the buried forests http://wpg.forestry.oregonstate.edu/sit ... stspdf.pdf of the area that describes it. It's located on the ridge below Illumination Rock at 5850ft just above a waterfall on a short tributary to Paradise Branch. Visting it directly would be quite the excursion, and maybe sometime in the future, but this trip was just to get a view and some pictures. I've stared at this ridge a couple of times without knowing it was there and wanted to view it.

Forgetting my camera card guaranteed the absolutely incredible lighting and cloud combinations that I got to witness along the way. I headed to Paradise Park, and left the loop trail heading up the rocky drainage that forms the beginning of the north part of the Lost Creek drainage. Above 6000 ft I cut north out of the drainage and followed the very established user path uphill till 6400ft, and then cut directly north to the steep edge above Paradise Branch and a good view down and across to the forest. The buried forest is very visible, some large logs sticking out of the sidehill, and a very distinctive brownish band of the soil from the forest extends down along the ridge.

Image

Image

Image

Image

I love these fun geologic features that give evidence to events that shaped the area. After viewing the buried forest, I headed back to the user trail and continued climbing, until the path becomes less defined heading up towards Mississippi Head.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

I had come prepared to head up and over the cliffs, but it was shrouded in and out of clouds and I wanted to explore the upper extents of the Lost Creek Drainage instead. Near where the north branch of the creek emerges out of the hillside I found some great patches of glacier smoothed and striated rocks. I crossed over the main branch, and eventually up to the southern Mississippi Head user path. The whole time the light was cutting in through the clouds, with a thick layer out toward the valley and lots of misty movement around the mountain.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

A lovely short trip with just about 4 miles off-trail wandering and the rest on the familiar trails with great fall colors before the snow came down. Here is a map, with my wanderings tracked in Orange and the forest location marked at the top with a red "X". The map base is a work in progress. This trip helped adjust some of the hydrology for the area, notably pinpointing the seep/spring that is the north fork of Lost Creek. It's a summer hiking map so I'm trying to have the hydrology based on where water actually consistently flows, unlike the USGS/NHD that most maps base everything on.
Image

User avatar
Waffle Stomper
Posts: 3707
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Stadter Buried Forest views and upper Lost Creek Drainage Mt Hood

Post by Waffle Stomper » October 21st, 2021, 4:29 pm

Lovely views, especially the glacial carved rocks. Very interesting about the buried trees.
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir

User avatar
Chip Down
Posts: 3037
Joined: November 8th, 2014, 8:41 pm

Re: Stadter Buried Forest views and upper Lost Creek Drainage Mt Hood

Post by Chip Down » October 21st, 2021, 4:41 pm

my camera will pretend to take photos
My phone does that. I've learned to be skeptical.
the ridge below Illumination Rock
I call it Illumination Ridge, and encourage others to do the same.
at 5850ft just above a waterfall on a short tributary to Paradise Branch
I think I know that waterfall! And yes, I've been there. :D
Visting it directly would be quite the excursion
Indeed, and I recommend it. The worst part is having to go over Mississippi Head and then drop in, thus having to climb back out on the return. A direct path would only be prudent if snow conditions are perfect.
The buried forest is very visible
That has to be a lie! Either that, or I'm not as observant as I should be.

Paradise Park is a popular destination, but your TR shows how much people overlook.

Pinecone, if you haven't read my Illumination Ridge/Illumination Park saga, I think you should. Seems right up your alley. It's pretty dense and not a quick read, but I encourage you to at least start by looking at the pics and get a sense of what's in there:
viewtopic.php?t=27046

an afterthought:
"This trip helped adjust some of the hydrology for the area, notably pinpointing the seep/spring that is the north fork of Lost Creek."
The upper reaches of Lost Creek is a fun place to visit. If my memory is right, it kinda demarcates PP from the alpine zone above. Worth a visit.

User avatar
pinecone
Posts: 47
Joined: August 26th, 2021, 2:50 pm
Contact:

Re: Stadter Buried Forest views and upper Lost Creek Drainage Mt Hood

Post by pinecone » October 21st, 2021, 5:41 pm

pinecone, if you haven't read my Illumination Ridge/Illumination Park saga, I think you should.
Ah! Excellent. I will peruse the posts extensively. Great to see a report from the area. This area, particularly the green park-like expanse is sort of my grail for lonely spots to visit around Mt. Hood. I'd like to take some time and thoroughly explore the area, good to see it is reachable on foot. Your photo with the yellow X marked for your goal shows a good perspective on the buried forest area above that fall.
That has to be a lie! Either that, or I'm not as observant as I should be.
I should add only visible when you know you should be looking for it. I've stared at this ridge several times and only knew that I should be looking for logs after reading that they were there. (and binoculars helped a good deal).

Next summer/fall goals.

User avatar
BurnsideBob
Posts: 534
Joined: May 6th, 2014, 3:15 pm
Location: Mount Angel, Oregon

Re: Stadter Buried Forest views and upper Lost Creek Drainage Mt Hood

Post by BurnsideBob » October 21st, 2021, 7:10 pm

Too much to see! I missed the buried forest. Thanks for sharing your photos and map and pointing out the buried forest. If I return above Split Rock I'll give a hard look.

Trip report here:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20207&p=150426&hili ... pi#p150426

Burnside Bob
I keep making protein shakes but they always turn out like margaritas.

User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Re: Stadter Buried Forest views and upper Lost Creek Drainage Mt Hood

Post by bobcat » October 22nd, 2021, 2:13 pm

Excellent report. I know the article you cited but somehow never thought about scanning that ridge even though I've been to most of the other buried forests. Something to look forward to the next time I'm up there.

Webfoot
Posts: 1759
Joined: November 25th, 2015, 11:06 am
Location: Troutdale

Re: Stadter Buried Forest views and upper Lost Creek Drainage Mt Hood

Post by Webfoot » October 22nd, 2021, 4:09 pm

Nice photos, phone or not.

Post Reply