Summit: 5,799ft
10m 3,099ft gain
Ancestral homelands of the: Tenino, Molalla, Grand Ronde and Siletz
Surrounding my favorite town in Oregon, Detroit, is a beautiful collection of mountains and volcanoes. This area lies within the Mount Jefferson Wilderness and the Willamette National Forest. The main attraction for many of these peaks is an up-close view of Mount Jefferson, Oregon’s second tallest volcano at 10,502ft. The nice gentle trail to Grizzly Peak puts you very close to Jefferson with only Pamelia Lake and the Hunts Creek Valley between the two. During the summer a wilderness day use permit is required and can be purchased up to 7 days before your trip on Recreation.gov.
1st Trip: 7/22/2021
After work hike with Moose on one long summer day. We made the 2:30 hour drive to and from Detroit and were still able to complete our 10 mile hike before daylight faded. The first 2.5 miles are mostly flat and take you to Pamelia Lake.
Before reaching the lake the trail to Grizzly Peak veers off to the right crossing some streams for Moose to cool off in. It’s then a gradual climb for 2.5 miles to the summit. We took extra water breaks to combat the heat.
The summit has a nice big area to relax at with an amazing unobstructed view of Mount Jefferson. It felt like you could reach out and touch the active stratovolcano.
Moose spent his time at the summit in the shade thinking about becoming a brother!
You can also see the top of Mount Hood and a few central Cascade volcanoes.
After admiring one the toughest Cascade volcanoes to climb we retraced our steps back to the truck with ease. We made one quick detour at Pamelia Lake so Moose could test the waters.
No descent is complete without munching on a stick in a stream!
We enjoyed the nice trail and change of scenery and look forward to more hikes in central Oregon! There are several other peaks around Detroit I’m itching to summit like Triangulation Peak and Dome Rock but a large portion of the beautiful wilderness area north of Jefferson burned in the Lionshead fire of 2020. Hoping this land comes back even stronger!
CAPPY TRAILS 