Marble Mountain Wilderness, Jul 3rd to Jul 6th

Looking for places to backpack during holyday weekends can be a bit of a challenge if you want to find a somewhat secluded area. It does get a bit more challenging if you start considering the weather in early July. Here in Oregon it can be a complete gamble so you could end up having spectacular days or pouring rain. The forecast for the weekend was not looking very promising so I started looking south, like in Central Oregon south. Same thing, farther south it was still the same so in the end, I started looking into Northern California. While doing that, I found a bit of information about the Marble Mountain Wilderness, a small area within the Klamath National Forest. From the description and a couple of pictures, it looked promising. Within the wilderness, there’s a very popular area, the Sky High Lakes which tends to be crowded even on non-holiday weekends. With maps and guides, I created a loop that touched on the highlights while still trying to avoid the crowds. And so we took off Friday night on long drive to Lover’s Camp where we would meet the rest of the group and start our loop

Day 1 – Lover’s Camp to Rainy Lake

Lately Val and I have gotten into the habit of driving the night before to the trailhead and sleeping in the car. That way, we can get a fresh and early start. It seems some other people got the same idea as we got to the trailhead at around midnight and just when we were about to fall asleep, two other parties got there.

Clouds over the ridge

The next morning we met with the rest of the group and soon were on the trail. For the first 4 miles, the trail travels somewhat close to Canyon Creek. You don’t really see the creek but you can hear it below you. There are several spots where smaller creeks cross the trail and continue down. As you climb, there are a handful of openings that will give you views of the Canyon Valley and some unnamed peaks on the other side.
Just when you start needing a break, you get to Marble Valley and the Forest Service Station. The spot is easy to recognize, not only because there’s a cabin in the middle of the forest but also because the views in front of you open up to Marble Mountain. This spot is also where the PCT crosses.

Forest Service Station

Originally I thought that by this point we would be close to the tree line and that most of our trip was going to be alpine. The wilderness is actually a bit lower in elevation than what I thought. Most of it is subalpine. We took a short break at the cabin and then continue on our intended route following the PCT north just until the next junction. From that junction we veered off to the west and started climbing towards Marble Gap, the small saddle in the middle of Marble Mountain. In that area vegetation is not too big so views extend south to the Canyon creek valley and to the north to Black Marble Mountain. As you approach the gap you can only imagine the views you’ll get but once there, you realize you were far from it. From the gap, the views extend to the west looking straight to Elk Peak, but the most amazing thing is to see what is known as the Marble Rim. The ridge is a semi-circle with sheer drops to a deep valley over 1000ft below.

South view of Marble Rim

From that point, the trail descends on the other side following the ridge and then turning and descending to the lowest point very abruptly. Differently to the trail on the other side, we found this trail to be brushier and less maintained. It seemed not too many people had gone this route in a while. Once we got to the Rainy Valley Creek junction, we turned south to follow the trail until we reached the last junction and short trail to Rainy Lake, our destination for the first night. We expected to find an open meadow with the lake so you could walk around it and set camp anywhere. What we found instead was a large site right before the lake and a foot path to a very muddy opening. The rest of the lake was forested and faint trail indicated that maybe you could go half way around but not too far.

Day 2 – Rainy Lake to Cold Springs

The plan for the day was a bit easier than the previous day. Only the first part was a steep climb back to the west end of the Marble Rim and then continue mostly o the ridge until reaching the PCT at Four Corners to then descend towards our destination. But son after we started, it seemed we were on an abandoned trail. If the previous day had been brushy the uphill from Rainy Lake was just crazy. In some section it was even difficult to see the trail in front of your feet. Luckily, after huffing and puffing and burning all of our breakfast calories, we reached the junction with the rim trail. From that point on, the trail was again well maintained and easy to follow. As we started traveling on the ridge, we passed by two saddles that opened the view to the rest of the rim that gave us a hint of what we would see later. But before that, we went back into the forest and traversed for a while on the side on the south most peak of the rim. There was not much to see for a while until the trail circles and comes on the other side where it opens to the east looking towards the Big Elk Fork. From that point, you see a small hill to the left and nothing more. As you walk and get closer to the next saddle you can’t avoid to salivate on the views you’re about to get and the saddle does not disappoint.

Marble rim from the saddle

There’s a small section of the trail that you literally stand a foot or two away from a sheer drop that must be well over 100ft. If that’s not enough, to the side you get the best view of the west side of Marble Mountain. We stopped there for a while to take pictures and pose in front of those views for a while. Then, after cleaning our drool, we continued crossing Marble Mountain again to the east side where we reached Four Corners, a trail junction with the PCT. We took the PCT south as it traveled on the ridge with ample views of Canyon Creek first and then the Sky High Lakes Basin. From the ridge you can’t see all the lakes, only

Frying Pan Lake

Frying Pan is full visible, but from there we could see and hear people below. It was indeed a busy weekend. Finally we found the junction to Shadow Lake. A short portion of the trail seemed that it was going nowhere even though you seem to get closer to a large black/green rock. Once you go around the last turn, the lake appears below with its intense blue color. As you get closer, the views get better and once you get there, you realize the lake sits in a shelf just above the Sky High Lakes.

Shadow Lake

From the side it almost looks like an infinity pool where the edge of the water just merges with the sky. From the information I had I thought we would find places to camp for the night but we found two things. The first is that there’s absolutely no shade in Shadow Lake. The other is that there are only three or four campsites so not enough space for all of us. Being early afternoon it didn’t make a lot sense for us to stay there. We did get in the water and ate lunch but staying any longer would have meant being fried alive. Being that he case, we had to think about an alternative and I thought about just continuing on the intended route to see what we would find. In a sense it was a pity we didn’t get to stay there as I think the views of the valley and Marble Mountain early in the morning must be spectacular. So after a while, we packed and continued on first climbing out of the shelf to a connector trail that would take us back to the PCT. Shortly after that, we found the junction to the Red Rock Valley, our intended route out. Right across from the junction, was another less used trail signed to Cold Springs. The map shows two tiny streams that don’t go anywhere but is market as campsite. We decided that it was worth checking it out so we took that detour and descended to a small meadow packed with wildflowers, and just like that, in the middle of the meadow, a small hole with water running out of it. The first hole looked a bit dirty but still usable. We noticed the trail continuing to a wooded area where we found not only a huge campsite with enough space for about 10 tents but also another hole and small stream with the cleanest, coolest and freshest water we had seen so far. Needless to say, we dropped our packs and stayed there.

Day 3 – Cold Springs to Lover’s Camp

Last day was the day out and we had a short hike so after eating our last breakfast we departed from our not so secret hideout. Once we got to the junction, we took the Red Rock Valley trail down. We passed a small meadow with trees and a small pond that I had seen in the map and thought it would be a potential stop if we hadn’t found Cold Springs. After going around this lakelet, we came to the biggest meadow I’ve seen.

Big Meadows on Red Rock Valley

It was big enough for you to get lost within the bushes and grasses. The first to disappear in it was Max, the four leg companion that came with us. In the meadow, the only thing you could see was some bushes moving and a black tail wagging. We thought it was only that section but soon realized the entire trail would pass from one meadow to another as we traveled fairly close to the creek. The other side of the creek was adorned with huge rock walls that had a reddish hue. I think in the afternoon, when the sun is in the other side these walls turn bright red offering a real spectacle. Finally we got some cows, one stream crossing and the junction with the Valley trail that took us back to the trailhead with plenty of time for that long drive back home.

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