Black Crater
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- Posts: 62
- Joined: November 10th, 2019, 10:14 pm
Black Crater
Visited here Wednesday 7/22/2020, arrived at 7:40am, no other cars in the lot. Parking enough for 20+ cars, no bathroom's here. Good for children, but has some pretty good elevation gain in 4 miles round trip is 8 miles. Not handicap accessible and no handicap parking. Must have a Northwest Forrest Pass ($30/yr), America the beautiful pass ($80/yr) or pre purchase a day pass ($5/day) before arriving as there is no fee pay station here. In the 1.5 miles I did on the trail, it was mostly all incline and all of it is in a burned Forrest from the 2017 Mill Fire. Lots of new growth and wild flowers blooming, lupine and several others. No shade here and bring plenty of water (I saw no water sources on trail). Didn't see anyone till 9:35am heading down (11 people), not many masked up for passings. Saw one potential camp spot a mile in or so. Lots of squeaky trees. 7 cars at the trailhead at 9:53am. The trail is in great condition soft sand and Forrest floor with a few rocky/rooty areas and one area where the trail was eroding. No cell service here till you get to the top probably. 3.20 miles w/ 1052ft elevation gain. (I did not do the whole trail which would be 8 miles RT w/roughly 2355ft elevation gain.) McKenzie highway 242 is closed in the winter, sometimes till July due to snow levels, so make sure you check to see if it is open or not before coming as this TH is in a gated area in the winter. Remember pack it in pack it out, leave no trace, leave the trails better than you found them. I only found one dog poo sack on the trail and packed it out with me.