Rooster Rock via Trout Creek Trail Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Trout Creek Trailhead (Menagerie Wilderness)
- End point: Rooster Rock Viewpoint
- Trail Log:
- Hike Type: Out and back
- Distance: 6.6 miles round trip
- High point: 3,567 feet
- Elevation gain: 2325 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: The trailhead is accessible all year, but the higher elevation sections of the trail will have snow in winter.
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
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Hike Description
The Menagerie Wilderness, a small forested area in the South Santiam drainage, protects a singular section of the Old Cascades. Here, rock spires and arches jut out of the forested slopes, the eroded plugs of primeval volcanoes whose cones have been whittled away by millions of years of erosion. Rock climbers have found this an intriguing challenge, and the various pillars have been given names like Rabbit Ears, Hen Rock, The Possum, Camel Head, Cockatoo Tower, and Turkey Monster: thus the moniker "Menagerie." Most of these are only accessible to climbers part of the year, as a six-month closure to protect nesting peregrine falcons is in effect. There are only two trails in the wilderness, and the closure does not affect them, however. The Trout Creek Trail is the longer and more gradual, but like the shorter but steeper Rooster Rock Trail Hike, ends up in the same place, at a rocky viewpoint far above the South Santiam River.
This hike can be done as a hike-and-bike loop with the Rooster Rock Trail Hike. Leave a bike at the Rooster Rock Trailhead, and hike to Rooster Rock from the Trout Creek Trailhead. Descend via the Rooster Rock Trail to the Rooster Rock Trailhead, and cycle back along the Santiam Highway the 2 3/4 miles to the Trout Creek Trailhead. Be careful: there is not much of a verge on the highway, so keep strictly to the edge of the lane.
Find the Trout Creek Trail #3405 leading up on the right side of the parking area, but fill out your wilderness permit first. Enter a leafy slope forest of Douglas-fir, western hemlock, big-leaf maple, vine maple, rhododendron, Oregon grape, salal, and thimbleberry. Irises bloom along this lower section of trail in the spring. In early July, the rhododendrons will be in full flower. For most of this route, the Trout Creek Trail keeps below the actual ridge crest. Traffic noise from the Santiam Highway will unfortunately be following you up the trail for quite a distance. The trail swings around the nose of a ridge, and you get views across to Soapgrass Mountain through the trees. You’ll pass a steep user spur that just leads up to an old campfire circle on the ridge crest itself. Pass across a green slope of sword fern and Oregon grape to round the nose of another ridge. Traversing this next slope, you’ll get a view through a gap in the trees of Chicken Rock and Rooster Rock. The trail reaches the ridge crest in a carpet of salal, and continues to rise relentlessly as it drops off the crest. Come to the Rooster Rock-Trout Creek Trail Junction, and stay straight (left).
The trail continues to rise from the junction. Soon, you’ll enter a corridor of madrones with a few attendant patches of poison oak. Switchback twice, and make a steep traverse up. You’ll glimpse Chicken Rock below through the trees, and then come to a rocky outcrop next to Rooster Rock. You can make your way to the north face and note the large bolts which held the ladders that led to an exposed lookout, dismantled in 1963, that once perched atop the Rock. For a better look up at Rooster Rock, find the climber’s trail leading steeply down the east side of the rock. This will eventually allow you to get a view up the vertical south side from near the base. You can also make your way across the steep slope about 80 yards to the east to get a view of the Rooster’s Trail, a more colorful (and crumbly) climber’s destination.
From the switchback, the trail heads up through manzanita bushes to a switchback. A climber’s trail leads left. To get to the Rooster Rock Viewpoint, go right. This exposed prominence was once the site of the small staff cabin for the lookout. Nothing remains today, but there are views up the South Santiam valley. Cone Peak and Iron Mountain can be distinguished to the east. Over the ridges to the south, the snowy tops of the Three Sisters can be seen, well at least North Sister and Middle Sister. Looking north through the trees, you may make out the rocky cliffs of Panorama Point, a headland that looms above many of the other volcanic pinnacles in the wilderness.
To add a little to your hike, you can take the climber’s path that leads north along the ridge crest from the switchback below the Rooster Rock Viewpoint. Keep looking northeast through the trees to get glimpses of some of the other formations: You should be able to get partial glimpses of the Rabbit Ears, below them The Spire, and farther back Turkey Monster. This is about as good as you’re going to get. The user trail continues to a logging road and Panorama Point, but the northern area of the wilderness is closed from January 15th to July 15th to protect nesting peregrine falcons from disturbance.
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Menagerie Wilderness and Middle Santiam Wilderness
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Sweet Home Ranger District
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Willamette National Forest
- Pacific Northwest Recreation Map Series: Willamette Cascades
Regulations or Restrictions, etc.
- Self-issued wilderness permit
- Share trail with horses
- Information kiosk
- Campgrounds nearby
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Rooster Rock via Trout Creek Trail Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Rooster Rock via Trout Creek Trail Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- 101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region by Matt Reeder
- Hiking Oregon's Geology by Ellen Morris Bishop
- 100 Hikes in Oregon's Central Cascades by William L. Sullivan
- Central Oregon Wilderness Areas by Donna Ikenberry Aitkenhead
- Hiking Oregon's Central Cascades by Bruce Grubbs
- Hiking Oregon's Three Sisters Country by Bruce Grubbs
- Oregon's Wilderness Areas by George Wuerthner
- Guide to the Middle and South Santiam Roadless Areas edited by Julie Ambler
- Oregon's Southern Cascades: Camping & Hiking by Tom Stienstra & Sean Patrick Hill
- Oregon Hiking by Sean Patrick Hill
- Pacific Northwest Hiking by Scott Leonard & Sean Patrick Hill
More Links
- Trout Creek Trail #3405 (USFS)
- Rooster Rock (Menagerie Wilderness) 18-Jul-2017 (Boots on the Trail)
- Menagerie Wilderness: Trout Creek to Rooster Rock (Cascadia Hiking)
- A Day in the Menagerie (Eugene Weekly)
- Rooster Rock - Menagerie Wilderness (Oregon Wild)
- Rooster Rock Hike (Outdoor Project)
- Rooster Rock via Trout Creek Trail (Salem Weekly News)
- Rooster Rock (Summit Post)
- The Menagerie (Portland Rock Climbs)
- Menagerie, OR Peregrine Closure (Cascade Climbers)
- Menagerie Wilderness (USFS)
- Menagerie Wilderness (Summit Post)
- Menagerie Wilderness (Wilderness.net)