Distance: 7.5 mile semi-loop
Elevation Gain: 1,500 feet
Trailhead elevation: 5,151 feet
Trail high point: 6,490 feet
Season: July - October
Best: July - August
Map: Mount Jefferson Wilderness (Geo-Graphics)
Directions from Salem / Albany:
• From Salem, drive east on OR 22 for 82 miles (or exactly 31.7 miles past the Breitenbush turnoff in Detroit) until OR 22 ends when it merges onto US 20.
• If coming from Albany, drive US 20 to Santiam Junction.
• Continue straight on US 20 for 5.4 miles to Santiam Pass.
• Drive US 20 past Santiam Pass for 8 miles to a turnoff for FR 12, opposite a sign that reads “Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Trailheads.” It may be difficult to turn against traffic. The turnoff is less than a mile from the turnoff to Suttle Lake.
• Turn left on FR 12 and drive 1.1 miles to a fork in the road.
• Keep right for another 3.3 miles to a sign for Jack Lake Campground.
• Turn left and drive 0.6 mile of narrow pavement to a bridge over Jack Creek.
• Keep straight 0.7 mile of pavement to a junction on the right signed for Cabot Lake TH.
• Keep straight, now on FR 1234, another 0.7 mile of washboarded gravel to a junction with FR 1235, Bear Valley Road, on your right.
• Keep left and drive 5.1 miles of wide but washboarded gravel road to Jack Lake and the huge trailhead for Canyon Creek Meadows. A Northwest Forest Pass is required.
Directions from Sisters:
• Drive US 20 for 12 miles northwest to a turnoff on your right for FR 12, signed for “Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Trailheads”.
• Turn right on FR 12 and drive 1.1 miles to a fork in the road.
• Keep right for another 3.3 miles to a sign for Jack Lake.
• Turn left and drive 0.6 mile of narrow pavement to a bridge over Jack Creek.
• Keep straight 0.7 mile of pavement to a junction on the right signed for Cabot Lake TH.
• Keep straight, now on FR 1234, another 0.7 mile of washboarded gravel to a junction with FR 1235, Bear Valley Road, on your right.
• Keep left and drive 5.1 miles of wide but washboarded gravel road to Jack Lake and the huge trailhead for Canyon Creek Meadows. A Northwest Forest Pass is required.
Note: A limited-entry permit to hike and backpack on this trail will be required starting in 2020.
Hike: Canyon Creek Meadows is one of the most spectacular places in the Oregon Cascades. The massive, heavily eroded wall of Three-Fingered Jack towers over fields of wildflowers, while cascading Canyon Creek is at turns glassy and roaring, providing myriad photo opportunities. This is a magical place, and everyone knows it – the crowds here are formidable throughout the summer. For maximum solitude and maximum wildflowers, try to plan a visit here mid-week in late July or early August, and for the best photos, stay overnight.
The trail begins at the massive Jack Lake Trailhead. There was a campground here before the B+B Fire, and some of the sites remain but they offer little privacy, and the only water is from the shallow lake. The trail curves around the north side of the lake and sets about a gradual ascent through forest that was incinerated in the 2003 fire. At about a half-mile from the trailhead, meet a junction with the Summit Lake Trail (in fact you’ve been on the Summit Lake Trail, which traverses the east side of Three-Fingered Jack as described in Hike 87). Turn left and hike uphill, into unburned forest and then downhill into the basin holding Canyon Creek Meadows.
Hiking into Canyon Creek Meadows.
At 2.1 miles, reach a junction with the trail into the meadows, beside trickling Canyon Creek. This is where the flower show starts in earnest in the summer – the displays of lupine in the meadows here are among the best in the Cascades. Just beyond the junction, there is a sign that reads “Trail not maintained”. This is to discourage people, but it isn’t working – the trail is very much maintained by the hundreds if not thousands of hikers of come up here every summer and fall. The Canyon Glacier Trail ascends into the forest for a bit before opening up into a steep hanging meadow with an excellent view of Three-Fingered Jack ahead. From here you will hike steeply uphill until you reach a junction above the huge glacial outwash plain that is the upper Canyon Creek Meadow. To visit the upper meadow, turn right and descend about eighty feet to the meadow – but let’s be honest: since you made it this far, you will almost certainly want to see the unnamed lake at the base of Three-Fingered Jack’s glacier. So keep going straight until you see the moraine in front of you. There is a proliferation of trails here but the best and most obvious one shoots for the notch in the moraine. Climb steeply here, passing lots of July and August flowers, until you crest the notch and arrive at a most incredible view: the massive, striated wall of Three-Fingered Jack, with the gorgeously translucent waters of the glacial lake below you. This is the source of Canyon Creek. Try to get here earlier in the season, when the lake is a most beautiful shade of turquoise; later in the summer, the lake turns an unappetizing shade of brown, robbing the scene of some of its majesty. This is an excellent place to stop, should you wish to do so. It is possible to continue to an equally impressive viewpoint below the heavily eroded eastern face of Three-Fingered Jack. All you need to do is continue up this trail above the moraine, always opting for the most obvious trail. Less than a half-mile later and several hundred feet higher, you’ll arrive at a small basin directly across the red and brown cliffs at approximately 6,500 feet of elevation, just 1,300 feet below the summit of the mountain. Views stretch south to the Three Sisters and north to Mount Jefferson but the star of this show is the magnificence of Three-Fingered Jack’s striated cliffs. Mountain climbers are sighted frequently on the cliffs above, and hikers have occasionally encountered mountain goats in this area – a rare sight indeed!
Three-Fingered Jack’s glacial lake.
When you need to turn around, return to the junction just above the upper meadow. From here, drop down into the meadow and drink up the view – it’s just as good as the high basin above, but this time you have acres of flowers in the foreground. Do not camp in this fragile spot. You can return the way you came, but I recommend making a short and scenic loop. Follow social trails around the perimeter of the meadow until you arrive at Canyon Creek’s slot canyon on the north end of the upper meadow. From here you will follow an obvious trail downhill, paralleling cascading Canyon Creek. The flower displays in this canyon, as
they typically are beside alpine creeks, are outstanding. Just a bit later, you will arrive at trail’s end at an unmarked and potentially obstructed junction with the main trail into the meadow – making it hard to hike this trail the opposite direction.
Rare white monkeyflower at Canyon Creek Meadows.