Clear Lake Butte and Little Crater Lake, Apr 10th

You might remember I tried this same route back in February on a very cloudy day. That time, we were notable to do the intended route for several reasons. With much better weather and having a bit more information (and longer days), it was time to try this one more time. This time the snow, near the parking lot, was very consolidated almost to the point that we didn’t need the snowshoes. That worried my hikers as they thought we would be just hiking on a thin layer of snow. I have to admit I was a bit worried as well as I didn’t know what was ahead for us. Luckily, once we got to the point where we needed to get off trail, the snow was much better so we got our gear on and headed up the mountain. Contrary to last time, I kept the group on a straight line up to the top so we got to the Fire lookout tower without many incidents. As you can see from the pictures, the views were much better than back in February. From the tower it was easy to see Timothy Lake, Mt Hood and Clear Lake. Unfortunately someone was occupying the lookout tower so we were not able to go all the way to the upper platform for the best views. It was also very windy, so being up there was not easy.

Clear Lake Butte Fire Lookout Tower


We took shelter inside the wood storage which ended up being a perfect spot for lunch. After that, it was a straight line to Little Crater Lake. Although this route was all downhill, with warmer weather the snow got stickier so the hike ended up being quite tiring. Eventually we got to the road that goes around Clear Lake Butte and found the fork to Little Crater a few yards away. That portion was a flat road so it actually served us to rest our legs for a while. The Lake, as expected was very small, but what’s incredible about it is that it seems to be carved out of the rocks. Looking at it, you can see kind of a round platform around and then a big hole in the middle. There was a sunken tree in it that was barely visible but you could make that the lake in fact is very deep. The other interesting thing about this lake is that, since it’s so deep, it rarely freezes.

Little Crater Lake


After enjoying that scenery, we had the hike back to the car. The only issue with that was we were still about half way thru our hike! Looking at the map, one option was to climb back up and come down on the other side of the butte on a shorter route, or do a longer route around. Since we were pretty tired but didn’t want to spend too much time getting back, we opted for a half way up and around combination. That decision didn’t make the hike back any easier. As we were traversing the slopes of the Butte, we were sinking to our knees every other step so half way thru we veered off to get back on the road a bit earlier than planned. Eventually we got there but were very tired so we took a short break before doing the last 3 miles to the car.