The weather wasn't too bad (i.e., I made good clothing choices) so I headed out this morning to hike up to the top of Castle Rock. I started at the King's Castle trailhead, right down by the McKenzie River about an hour east of Eugene. The signage makes it pretty clear that this is a mountain biking trail, but on this drizzly 45-degree morning I saw no bikers and only two other hikers.
- King's Castle Trailhead
Although the trailhead is King's Castle, the trail leading out of it is King-Castle, at least according to the FS website. Go figure. The first few miles of the trail are solidly packed and pretty wide; looks like it gets a fair amount of traffic in decent weather. The trail winds through mossy undergrowth, with a few substantial trees along the way. There were only a few puddles on the trail despite all the recent rain.
- On the lower trail
This part of the trail winds its way gradually upward, with almost no breaks from the steady climb. Overall, the day was about 2500 feet of elevation gain in five miles. There are a few spots along the lower trail where it switches from one ridgeline to another, and there are rough log walkways over boggy spots. The trail gets close to the edge of the National Forest and there are obvious adjacent logged areas at a couple of spots, but nothing too intrusive.
- Log walkway with graveled approach
About 3/4 of the way up, the trail crosses FR480. There's room here to park a couple of cars, and I suspect it's where some mountain bikers start. On the uphill side of the crossing, the trail becomes notably less firm and less traveled. This is also where I started seeing patches of snow, though the rain has largely removed the snow and none of it was a trail hazard today.
- Crossing FR480
Not too long after the road crossing, the King-Castle trail ends at the Castle Rock trail. Turn right here if you're heading uphill and want to continue to the top. Turning left puts you into the
O'Leary Trail Complex, which looks like fun but was more hike than I wanted today.
- Intersection of King-Castle and Castle Rock trail
The trail steepens notably at this point, and the moss is mostly gone, replaced by (I think) Oregon grape. It also goes through what looks like an old logged area to me; lots of stumps, but currently mature trees. The switchbacks become more frequent and abrupt. There are also a fair number of social trails darting off in one direction or another. Many of them end up at spots that would have a good view on a less-cloudy day.
- Heading up Castle Rock trail
The trail meets back up with FR480 at the Castle Rock Trailhead. Plenty of parking here, since it's the end of the road.
- Castle Rock Trailhead
The trail switchbacks its way up the mountain, passing a small spring along the way (which probably doesn't flow when there hasn't been so much rain) and gradually passing rocks then boulders then outcroppings.
- Trailside spring
- Passing outcroppings on the way to the top
Close to the top, the trail breaks out of the forest into an area of grass with some manzanita bushes and a few more smaller trees on top. At this point the trail surface goes from dirt to crumbly rock. I wouldn't want to hike it in snow or ice, but I'm a wimp. Anyhow, it was clear today, so I kept going right to the top.
- Coming out of the forest
As others have noted, the top of Castle Rock has some solar-powered equipment. I have no idea what's in the box. There's a company name and URL on the side, but it's the company providing the wireless internet connection for whatever is in the box. There are also some steel eyebolts embedded in the rock, relics of whatever was up there before.
- Top of Castle Rock
The view today was not much more than clouds, although they were just beginning to break up when I got there right at noon. I could see a few of the hills across the McKenzie River, and not much else. I sat and had a bit of lunch before turning around and heading back down.
- View from the top
The clouds continued to break up as I was on my way down, and I walked through the occasional small patch of sunshine (as well as some more drizzle). The downhill trip was faster than uphill, and I ended up just shy of 5 hours for what my GPS put at 11.5 miles including a few side trips and wandering around the summit area.
