Buck Peak from Lost Lake Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Lost Lake Trailhead
- End point: Buck Peak
- Trail log: Trail Log
- Hike type: Reverse lollipop
- Distance: 14.3 miles round trip
- Elevation gain: 2430 feet
- High point: 4,751 feet
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Seasons: June through September
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: Yes
- Crowded: At Lost Lake; the rest of the hike is uncrowded
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Hike Description
This hike takes in a variety of natural settings. On the crowded shores of Lost Lake, you'll hike under tall old growth, pass lush bogs, and get a stunning view of Mount Hood. Heading up the Huckleberry Mountain Trail, you'll leave the crowds behind and, using the Pacific Crest Trail, enjoy a four-mile ridge crest saunter to the top of Buck Peak, the site of an old lookout and the highest point in Multnomah County. From this viewpoint, you can get views north to Mount Adams and Mount Rainier as well as south to Mount Jefferson. Lost Lake sparkles in its dark green forest mantle below. Note that once you begin your ascent on the Huckleberry Mountain Trail, you'll be inside the Bull Run Watershed, which means you have to stick to the trails. Those doing this as a backpack will probably want to camp at Salvation Spring, just north of the Pacific Crest-Huckleberry Mountain Trail Junction.
From the parking for the North Day Use Area, take steps down toward Lost Lake. A viewing platform offers you the Instagram vista across the lake to Mount Hood. (Lost Lake is said to be the most photographed lake in Oregon, and most of the photos are from this spot!) Turn left when you reach the Lakeshore Trail in order to begin a clockwise loop. You'll cross the Lake Branch, Lost Lake's outlet creek, on a pedestrian bridge, and pass some picnic tables and the boat rental shed, across the road from the general store. The Lakeshore Trail then passes picnic sites and reaches a small parking area. Follow this paved section through a thicket of Sitka alder, willow, and thimbleberry to cross the boat launch. Soon you'll be following an extensive boardwalk system along the east shore of the lake, with periodic fishing piers that are accessible for disabled visitors. Other trails lead up to campsites, which are no longer right along the lake shore. Throughout this section, the trail is flanked by old growth western red-cedar, Douglas-fir and western hemlock, with a few silver and noble fir mixed in. Pass the junction with the Old Growth Trail, and then negotiate a very muddy section of the Lakeshore Trail where it swings away from the shore.
At 1.2 miles, reach a junction with the Huckleberry Mountain Trail #617. Turn left - it's a climb of 900 feet in just over two miles to reach the Pacific Crest Trail from here. First, you'll cross a boardwalk and pass a couple of campsites set in the shady forest. On your right is an atmospheric skunk-cabbage bog. When you reach a trail junction, stay right (don't go out to the nearby forest road).
You'll get most of your elevation on the Huckleberry Mountain Trail done on this first segment where you'll make a steep traverse up a forested slope and then switchback. There's a glimpse of Lost Lake below with Lost Lake Butte rising off of its east shore. Soon you'll enter the Bull Run Watershed, and signs display the restrictions for hikers (basically, stay on the trail!). After that, you'll be traversing below a ridge crest as the forest transitions to montane conifers such as noble fir, silver fir, and mountain hemlock. The several springs that issue below this crest form the headwaters of Jones Creek. When you reach the Pacific Crest-Huckleberry Mountain Trail Junction on a saddle with several campsites, turn right. A section of the Huckleberry Mountain Trail once continued down to Bull Run Lake from here (you get a glimpse of the lake through the trees). You'll be hiking on the PCT for 3.2 miles.
The Pacific Crest Trail rises to another junction with a small sign for Salvation Spring. The short spur trail down crosses some outflow channels of the copious spring and reaches a few nice campsites on a bench.
Continue rising on the Pacific Crest Trail to cross a tumbling brook. The trail then switchbacks and crosses three streams running through salmonberry thickets in a mature silver fir forest. Switchback three more times to get a view of the scree slopes on the Devils Pulpit through the trees. After you pass over the saddle between Preachers Peak and the Devils Pulpit, you'll begin a gradual descent, passing above a bowl of Sitka alder and devil’s club. Then, before you wind around a rocky knoll, look over your left shoulder to catch a glimpse of Bull Run Lake below in the forbidden watershed. On your right, you'll get views of Lost Lake as well as a vista to Indian Mountain on Waucoma Ridge and Mount Adams and Mount Rainier to the north. The PCT crosses a steep face and drops to a saddle. Then the trail winds up and traverses along the ridge offering more good views to Lost Lake below. Descend to get your first view of Buck Peak before passing across a salmonberry/devil’s club slope to reach a saddle. The PCT then makes a rising traverse to cross a steep grassy meadow and burrows through huckleberries as it passes over the crest of a narrow ridge.
You’ll see the unsigned junction with the Buck Peak Trail just before a large snag with a PCT badge. Hike up this little-maintained trail through huckleberries and bear-grass. Pass a campsite, and switchback to curve around to the west side of the peak in a dense growth of young noble firs. There’s a good view of Tanner Butte to the north. Then you'll switchback three more times to an east-facing opening on the forested summit of Buck Peak. There’s a wide view to Vista Ridge and Cathedral Ridge on Mount Hood and all the way south to Mount Jefferson. Below lies Lost Lake, and just east of the lake are Lost Lake Butte and Butcher Knife Ridge. Far to the east, you’ll make out Surveyors Ridge and Lookout Mountain. A short burrow through the trees to your left will offer views to Mount Adams and Mount Rainier. If you look around a little, you might find a couple of rusting artifacts from the time when Buck Peak harbored a lookout station.
Return the way you came along the Pacific Crest Trail and then the Huckleberry Mountain Trail. When you reach the Lakeshore Trail #656, turn left to complete the loop around Lost Lake. Cross a cedar/skunk-cabbage bog on a boardwalk and soon get views to Lost Lake Butte. The trail proceeds under large hemlocks and then through a lush thicket of bugbane, coltsfoot, thimbleberry, goat's beard, and lady fern. You'll cross a scree slope and then reach the water's edge before rising into a slope forest of large Douglas-firs. The trail soon descends again to the shore, however, and passes through thickets of salmonberry, thimbleberry, and devil's club. When you reach a boggy flat area at the northwest corner of the lake, you'll begin a long boardwalk. Pass a private cabin on the left and, at 2.5 miles, cross Inlet Creek on another set of sturdy boardwalks. Numbered posts from an old nature trail begin to appear.
Next, the trail reenters a dense forest of western red cedar, and soon the branches of these graceful conifers frame one of the most famous mountain views in the world, as Mount Hood emerges across Lost Lake. For generations, scores of landscape photographers, including Oregon’s late Ray Atkeson, have patiently staked out the shoreline here in search of the perfect image. From this spot, it's a short distance up to the parking area.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- $9 entrance fee (Northwest Forest Pass not accepted) or park at the Old Skyline North Trailhead
- Store, campground, picnic area, boat rentals
- Stay on the trails when you're in the Bull Run Watershed
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Pacific Crest Trail #2000: Indian Springs to Lolo Pass (USFS)
- Green Trails Maps: Government Camp, OR #461
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Hood River Ranger District
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Hood National Forest
- Discover Your Northwest: Mt. Hood National Forest North
- National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map: Mount Hood
- Adventure Maps: Mt. Hood Area
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail: Northern Oregon
- National Geographic: Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon North
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Buck Peak from Lost Lake
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Buck Peak from Lost Lake
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Portland by Paul Gerald
- Day Hike! Columbia Gorge by Seabury Blair, Jr.
- Day Hikes in the Pacific Northwest by Don J. Scarmuzzi
- 100 Hikes: Northwest Oregon by William L. Sullivan
- Day Hiking Mount Hood: A Year-Round Guide by Eli Boschetto
- 105 Virtual Hikes of the Mt. Hood National Forest by Northwest Hiker
More Links
- Lakeshore Trail #656 (USFS)
- Huckleberry Mountain Trail #617 (USFS)
- Pacific Crest Trail (Hood River) (USFS)
- Buck Peak Trail #615 (USFS)
- Buck Peak from Lost Lake Hike (Northwest Hiker)
- Lost Lake to PCT North to Buck Peak Trail (Went Hiking)
- Buck Peak via Lakeshore and Huckleberry Mountain Trail (All Trails)
- Lost Lake Butte & Buck Peak - July 18th 2013 (Smugmug)
- Hiking Trails (Lost Lake Resort)
- Lost Lake Resort
- Lost Lake (Atlas of Oregon Lakes)
Contributors
- Stevefromdodge (creator)