Central
Oregon Mountains
with links to the
Pacific Crest Trail, Oregon classic fire lookouts, the Oregon Skyline Trail, and historic wilderness shelters
"Sisters
Cloudland." Seas of soft cloud drift over the black, jagged
lavas of McKenzie Pass in this scene from a winter climb of Mt.
Washington. The Pacific Crest Trail runs through the middle of
the picture beneath the clouds. North and Middle Sisters rise
somberly to 10,000 ft. in the distance. Behind us, a few miles
NW, is Hoodoo Ski area, and then Highway 22 and Santiam Pass with
its bustle of traffic. Click here to communicate
via email
if interested in purchasing a print of "Sisters Cloudland."
Oregon's two long distance trails along the Cascade
Crest: the PCT, and its predecessor, The Oregon Skyline Trail
Many years before
the modern Pacific Crest Trail came into existence, Oregon developed
a visionary trail along the crest of the Cascade Mountains. It
ran north to south all the way from Mt. Hood to Crater Lake. It
was named The
Oregon Skyline Trail.
Below are several pages concerned with the Skyline Trail and some
other related historic trails near it... Notes: Click here to find remarks on vanished
Wilderness Shelters.... Click here to skip to my Pacific Crest Trail pages.
Oregon's
section of the Pacific Crest Trail System
Ever-popular
Green Lake and South Sister Mountain. This lake is often snow-choked
until late July due to its elevation of close to 6500 feet. The
PCT passes to the west of this location, on the opposite flank
of South Sister, where Geologists have mounted a full-scale, highly-instrumented
Volcanic Alert--- the area in questions
is about 3 miles west of South Sister, and its surface has bulged
upward over 10 inches since late 1997. Over 50 million cubic yards
of magma has risen into the rocks far below the surface! And the
uplift continues.....This area was last active very recently,
at about the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, in the Rock Mesa
area, and also near Green Lake, seen in this image.
Lookout
Towers
Click this to
be awed by.. Mt. Pisgah Lookout ..whirling under the night sky! You'll also get acquainted
with some.. other Oregon lookouts ..--and
hopefully you'll decide that Oregon's remaining lookouts are a
heritage worth preserving.
Three
Sisters Wilderness History: Sunshine Shelter, aka simply "Sunshine" among
climbers
elevation
6,400'
The long uphill
trudge through dense forests from Frog Camp formerly had a fine
reward at its end. Sunshine Shelter was a haven for soaked, tired
climbers and Skyline Trail backpackers for many, many years. I
have reports that in 1944, "Sunshine" was even hooked
up to the outside world via a US Forest Service phone line strung
among the trees from McKenzie Bridge Ranger Station.
But the sad fate
of Sunshine is that it was demolished and burned by the Forest
Service; my best report believes this occurred about 1973 (thanks,
Paul B.)
Its destruction*
was a piece of the movement that saw most of our National Forests
and Wildernesses loose their historic old lookout towers and shelters.
To me, Sunshine Shelter had a delightful ambiance, possessing
a sort of European Alps climbing hut feel.....On historic Oregon
Skyline Trail maps from the 1920's, a location marked "Camp
Riley" shows up at or near the site of Sunshine Shelter.
This was decades before the present Three Sisters Wilderness Area
had been created---back in the 20's and 30's, this was the "Three
Sisters Game Refuge," and horsemen and hunters ruled....The
area was designated as one of Oregon's first "Primitive"
Areas in 1937, and formally designated as a "Wild Area"
on 2/06/1957. At a size of 199,902 acres, it is second only to
the Eagle Cap Wilderness in size.
Below please
find a cozy image of a still-existing shelter, one of the few
shelters missed in the campaign of destruction. Unfortunately,
hikers themselves were sometimes the problem, such as at "Jack
Shelter," which was located just a couple miles hike north
along the PCT from Santiam Pass-- here hikers repeatedly burned
campfires inside the shelter, ultimately damaging it and leading
to its destruction because FS rules said such historic structures
couldn't be altered with modern materials for repairs- Jack Shelter
was taken down in 1972-- it was one of my personal favorites....This
image below brings back to my mind pleasant memories of the rustic
security during bad weather that these shelters offered to any
and all at no cost. This shelter is located in the Southern Cascades
of Washington State. Image credit: Monte Dodge.
*
Please e-mail
me if you can supply an exact date, or other details, regarding
Sunshine Shelter's end, and I'll be happy to include them on this
webpage. I'm also interested in other shelters you may know of----
Bruce
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Page last
revised November 26, 2009
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