East Crater and loop

[drm]

Went last Thursday up East Crater trail with the goal of finally hiking up to the crater rim, and then continuing on the Blue/Rock Lake loop. Note that the color seems to be over at Indian Heaven. Maybe there are some spots of it left, but not on the route I did.

Indian Heaven is Amanita Heaven

Stripe Pond

bridge still usable . . .

but they will probably take it out soon, who knows if they will replace it

I was heading towards the SW side to go up east Crater, but saw this on the NW side so headed up there

still good half way up - it only gains about 400 feet

From the west rim - the east rim is slightly higher

Mt Hood - note that the East Crater rim is lower if you had up from the SE

Blue Lake

At Rock Lake, the stepping stones are well submerged already

Lunch time at Rock Lake

On the unofficial but good trail from Rock to Junction Lake, you can see East Crater

As that trail gets more wet, you are paralleling the PCT. Turning right and heading uphill here, it is literally about 100 yards to the (dry) PCT

[johnspeth]

I used to reliably find good paths to East Crater on the north side. The fire changed all that. A couple of recent casual tries always took me to a wall of brush at which point I accept failure. Conditions quickly evolve from year to year. I've noticed those various east side approaches but never tried them. Now I know - thanks.

[drm]

Except that I mislabeled my photos, which I realized after reading your response - now fixed. I was aiming for the SW side, but went up the NW instead when I saw an obvious easy path - i.e. little ground cover. I tried going up the north side in the spring - on showshoes - but hit too much brush. The east side doesn't look too hard, but the trail doesn't get very close there.