Crofton Ridge Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
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- Start point: Wicky Shelter Trailhead
- Ending Point: Crofton Butte
- Trail Log:
- Distance: 12.5 miles
- Elevation gain: 2600 feet
- High Point: 5,272 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: Late spring into fall
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
The trails on the south side of Mount Adams derive from a network of stock driveways from an era when sheep, and later cattle, were driven up the mountainside following the snow melt into extensive high meadows that later became more forested. The Gotchen Creek Guard Station was erected to monitor the livestock traffic, and most of the mountain’s features in this area are named after sheep and cattle herders. Much of this hike, which uses three major trails, travels through the area of the 2012 Cascade Creek Fire (The fire was initiated by a lightning strike near Crofton Butte), and it is instructive to observe how different areas have been revegetating. With the country opened up by the burn, the off-trail excursion to the big rock on the top of Crofton Butte is a worthy goal.
From the Wicky Creek Shelter, walk back towards the road, and find Trail #39A leading down through the vine maple, bracken, vanilla leaf, and wild rose. Douglas-firs and ponderosa pines tower overhead. Hike through a carpet of creeping snowberry, and come to the Morrison Creek-Wicky Creek Shelter Trail Junction, where you’ll go right to begin the loop.
The trail rises to cross Morrison Creek on a footbridge. Then you’ll descend to reach FR 8031-020. Keep straight ahead to the 023 spur, which has become the continuation of the Morrison Creek Trail. Hike around a berm on the abandoned road bed, which is lined by thickets of bitter cherry, vine maple, and snow brush. Small clearings alternate with dense woods. A pole and rail fence to the right surrounds a large and gushing set of springs. Enter a dense forest of Douglas-fir and grand fir to reach the Morrison Creek-Buck Creek Trail Junction.
Keep straight here on the Morrison Creek Trail to continue rising gradually on the road bed. Ignore a former spur road leading left, and emerge from a tunnel of vine maple at a small strawberry meadow. Walk up a slope where the trail is bolstered by erosion steps. Reach the end of the road bed, and enter an old-growth forest of big Douglas-firs. The largest of these trees is about five feet in diameter. This section is all too brief, however, as you’ll soon reach the 020 spur road again. Go 20 yards to your left to pick up the faint trail tread on the other side of the road. The tread becomes more obvious a few yards into the forest. Cross a bubbling brook, and now hike through a diseased forest with many fallen snags that is ripe for a cleansing conflagration. The path levels in a carpet of huckleberry, lupine, and wild rose to enter a patch of old growth. Head up a slope in a huckleberry carpet as the forest becomes more mixed with Douglas-fir, silver fir, noble fir, western hemlock, and Engelmann spruce. At the 050 spur road, you’ll arrive at the Crofton Ridge West Trailhead with its kiosk and wilderness permit box.
Take up the Crofton Ridge Trail here to enter another section of diseased forest at the wilderness boundary. Red warning signs tell snowmobilers not to venture further. The trail swings right at a jumble of boulders. If you want to visit nearby Rock Spring, go north off the trail through a series of small meadows where sheep herders must have once camped. The running spring will be to your left. Return to the trail, and make a traverse in an easterly direction to enter the area of the Cascade Creek Burn. In the early 20th century, this slope was a vast meadowy parkland that grew in with a young forest until it was destroyed by the fire. Hike through huckleberries and bear-grass. Ahead of you to the right, you can see the semi-burned slopes of Lower Butte. The snowy summit of Mount Adams pokes up through the trees. Keep rising gradually through the charred landscape. Pass below a rock outcropping where 60-foot aspen were killed by the fire but are regenerating in a young thicket. The trail levels, and you’ll see the rocky summit of Lower Butte to your right.
Before the path descends in earnest, leave the trail to begin your ascent to the summit of Crofton Butte. This is up through a totally burned forest on a carpet of sedges, bear-grass, and peavine littered with fallen snags. Only a few young conifers, mostly subalpine firs, have reestablished themselves. Pass through some rock outcroppings with a handful of unburned trees. The deadfall is worse the higher you get, but you can easily weave around and over the fallen tree skeletons. About a third of a mile from the trail, you’ll come to the massive boulder at the summit of Crofton Butte, the remains of a volcanic plug. At its base is a phlox/bear-grass meadow and Mount Adams can be viewed through the forest of burn snags. You can easily scramble up the rock from its northwest corner. On the top are clumps of penstemon and pinemat manzanita shaded by a few hardy – and living – lodgepole pines.
To return to the trail, keep left on the ridgeline, from which you can venture down into a steep meadow to get an unobstructed view of Mount Adams. Then return to the broad slope that takes you down to the trail on the saddle between Crofton Butte and Lower Butte. The trail begins its descent through an unburned forest of Douglas-fir, subalpine fir, grand fir, and ponderosa pine. Cross the lush bottom of Crofton Creek, and then head up to a ridge. Cross Shorthorn Creek, and then traverse up a slope into a more intense region of the burn. Make a traverse, and then come out of a draw to make a switchback up a slope and get more views of Mount Adams. Hike over the broad crest of a ridge, and then gradually descend to cross Morrison Creek on a sturdy footbridge to arrive at the Crofton Ridge East Trailhead. There’s an outhouse here if you need it.
Turn right on FR 8040, the road which leads to the South Climb Trailhead. You’re walking through the Cascade Creek Burn, but the snags have been cut back from the road. After the third bend in the road, the track rises to give a clear view of Mount Adams. About 0.6 miles from the Crofton Ridge East Trailhead, you’ll see the trail sign for the Gotchen Creek Trail #40.
Hike up through a rustling copse of aspen, and pass over the crest of McDonald Ridge. Descend through a grassy carpet, and cross over a second ridge crest. Get views to the southeast of Bunnell Butte and Smith Butte. Mount Hood’s snow-capped peak becomes visible as you continue to drop into a meadow where the fire was less intense and the canopy remains intact. Cross a Hole in the Ground Creek in a more heavily burned forest, and then hike up to pass over a rocky crest. A jumbled mass of boulders to the left is a tongue of the A.G. Aiken Lava Bed. Keep winding through a partially burned woodland to cross another creek and come to the Cold Springs-Gotchen Creek Trail Junction. Keep right to stay on the Gotchen Creek Trail, and descend through a thicket of snow brush to go over another ridge and come to the Morrison Creek-Gotchen Creek Trail Junction.
Make a right here through the sawed section of a large Douglas-fir. Hike over a hump and into a sea of snow brush, a post-fire opportunist that has taken over this area. Then enter a shadier stretch of forest with an intact canopy. Make several loops down a slope, and cross Hole in the Ground Creek on a sturdy footbridge. Gradually descend on a carpet of twin flower, wild strawberry, and huckleberry to cross the west fork of Hole in the Ground Creek on a footbridge put in place, as announced on its sides, by the Back Country Horsemen of Washington, Mount Adams Chapter. Reenter the burn area where bracken, willow, and fireweed transition to snow brush again. Pass a trail sign, and drop down through more encroaching snow brush before reaching unburned forest at Wicky Creek.
The trail makes a sharp left before the creek, and follows above it before passing through a stand of young Douglas-firs. Then hike through a plantation of ponderosa pine before arriving at the Morrison Creek-Wicky Creek Trail Junction. Stay right here to reach FR 8040, where you’ll head right to cross Wicky Creek and then pick up the Morrison Creek Trail again. Head up a slope of Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine; columbines and tiger lilies bloom here in early summer. Reach the Morrison Creek-Wicky Creek Shelter Trail Junction, and make a right to reach your vehicle in about 400 yards.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- $2 toll each way at the Hood River Bridge
- Self-issued wilderness permit required for Crofton Ridge Trail
- Cede trail to horses; share also with bikers on non-wilderness trails
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Green Trails Maps: Mount Adams, WA #367S
- National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map: Mount St. Helens - Mt. Adams
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Adams Ranger District
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Gifford Pinchot National Forest
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Crofton Ridge Loop Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Crofton Ridge Loop Hike
- Wicky Creek Shelter
Guidebooks that cover this destination
- Day Hiking: South Cascades by Dan A. Nelson & Alan L. Bauer
More Links
- Trail #39A Wicky Shelter (USFS)
- Trail #39 Morrison Creek (USFS)
- Trailhead: Crofton Ridge West (USFS)
- Trail #73 Crofton Butte (USFS)
- Trailhead: Crofton Ridge East (USFS)
- Trail #40 Gotchen Creek (USFS)
- Trailhead: Upper Gotchen Creek (FR 8040) (USFS)
- Campground: Wicky Shelter (USFS)
- Wicky Creek Shelter (Dean’s Place)
- Crofton Butte (Washington Trails Association)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)