- September 28th, 2010, my wife and I ended up camping here on a 3 day backpacking trip with blue skies and sun.
- 9.28.2010 My wife and I backpacked across Minam Pass (8,560') from Minam Lake to our campsite for night two at Mirror Lake.
Eagle Cap Wilderness tarn
One of the many small snow melt tarns that lace the upper lakes basin
area of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. This tarn is located just east of
the trail intersection at the very head of the East Fork of the
Lostine River Valley on the way to Mirror Lake. This photo was taken
looking back east, near Mirror Lake. The trail to Minam Lake would
head up over the mist shrouded ridge in the distance and in the top
right hand corner of the photo.
These photos are from August 19th - 21st, 2008. Our youngest son flew
up from Arizona to join me on some select hikes. We had to constantly
modify our plans because of the rough weather moving through the
Northwest, but we had three great hikes and saw some interesting and
beautiful country.
We drove back roads from our home in Eastern Washington, through Walla Walla and over into Elgin, Oregon. From there we drove to Lostine, where we headed for the Two Pan trailhead to the Eagle Cap Wilderness, where we hoped to a day hike and both of us see for the first time, some of the country that makes up this beautiful Oregon wilderness area.
We arrived just in time to set up our two tents at Two Pan. We had to use headlamps to finish the job, but a nice small campfire warmed the night. We both slept well, though rain drops spattered on our tents off and on, all through the night.
We made a round trip hike of 16 miles the next day, heading up the Lostine River, and choosing to visit Mirror and Moccasin Lake instead of another choice we could have made, which would have been to hike to Minam Lake.
We got rained on lightly on and off most of the day but the scenery was not diminished by the weather. The granite floored country of the upper basin and around Mirror and Moccasin Lakes, reminded me of the Enchantment Lakes area in Washington State. Because of the clouds we never did catch a glimpse of Eagle Cap mountain. A good excuse for going back again.
We got pelted by a pretty hard rain on the way back to our campsite but a lull in the rain let us enjoy a nice camp dinner. When the rain returned, we decided to head for Enterprise, get an inexpensive motel room, and dry out our gear. The rain storms followed us to Enterprise and soon after checking into our motel room, the town lost electrical power. All part of the fun and adventure of a “road trip”.
We poked around Joseph, Oregon the next day as my son had not been there as an adult. We enjoyed ourselves there, and then took another route back home, so we could see some different sights.
Two hours after arriving home that evening, we changed some of our gear, and headed for Mt. Rainier Park to hike to Mildred Point on Friday and then 3rd Burroughs Mt. on Saturday. We got back home Saturday afternoon, two hours before his flight back to Arizona. We had covered a lot of country on our three hikes, and had a great time doing so.
Comments and faves
colorado sparrow and mcgreevey added this photo to their favorites.
oldmantravels (42 months ago | reply)
M.D. Vaden of Oregon - Thanks for your comment. I had never heard of the Ave. of Giant Boulders, so I checked into it: Near Prospect, Oregon; SW of Crater Lake; by the Mills Creek Falls. Looks interesting. I will put that on my "to see list".
That is one of the big benefits of sharing photos and information on Flickr. We are always being introduced to interesting and scenic places, we haven't seen before. Thanks. OMT
Larry'nJill (39 months ago | reply)
oldmantravels (39 months ago | reply)
Larry'nJill - - fanciest flickr foto feedback ever. Thank YOU. OMT
rshaw added this photo to his favorites. (36 months ago)
Rocky Pix (36 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Real West, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
ecf44 and hopeisalot added this photo to their favorites.
hopeisalot (29 months ago | reply)
www.flickr.com/groups/beautifulpacificnorthwe st/
beautiful shot!
deluxe wombat added this photo to their favorites. (29 months ago)
oldmantravels (29 months ago | reply)
Thank you Krista! OMT
Justin Bland, Pacificoduck, grimsoul, Light from Light, and REVIVALthedigest added this photo to their favorites.
ida57 (5 months ago | reply)
now that just beautiful
ida57 added this photo to their favorites. (5 months ago)
oldmantravels (5 months ago | reply)
IDA57 - - Not a bad place to spend the night. Clear mountain air, great view, and no room charge for sleeping in a cozy backpacking tent. Think we will head back to the Eagle Cap again in 2012. OMT
DJamba DAG added this photo to their favorites. (7 days ago)