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Hiking Grizzly Peak at dusk
Last night we went for a little hike on Grizzly Peak and timed it so that we’d get to the side facing Ashland about the time the sun went down. The views were even better than I had imagined, and the way back down in the dark (we had flashlights and headlamps) wasn’t bad either.
The stars from the Grizzly Peak Trail parking lot were amazing too. The Milky Way was clearly visible, and it wasn’t cold.
Wildflowers on Wagner Butte hike
For today’s first photo I decided to have some fun with my new ultra wide-angle lens. At f/3.5 (the lowest f stop I can go with it), 10mm, and getting as close to the flower and still being able to focus as I can, the results are intriguing.
View from Wagner Butte Trail
Butterfly lands on yellow wildflower
With lots of wildflowers come lots of butterflies. I’m digging the macro capabilities and nice bokeh with my new lens.
View of Pilot Rock and Mount Ashland from the top of Wagner Butte
The top photo today is about as wide a picture as you can get from the top of Wagner Butte. I had my ultra wide-angle lens on my Nikon D7000 and shot this at 10mm. Pilot Rock and Mt. Ashland look very far away, but they wouldn’t if I was shooting at, say, 50mm or even 24mm.
Most days in Ashland’s summer feature no clouds at all. The sky usually isn’t this blue either as forest fires in Northern California or Southern Oregon tend to give the sky a gray haze. However, I got pretty lucky on this day to have bluer than normal skies and some clouds as an added bonus. About 3 hours after I took the above photo we had a brief thunder and lightning storm.
Wagner Butte, Jackson County, Oregon
The foundation for the lookout that was here until the 1970s is all that remains on Wagner Butte. There looked to be a rusted sink or something too. I didn’t get too close to it as there was a tornado of bugs swirling above.
Medford is in this direction, a bit to the right.
As a hiker approaches the top of Wagner Butte the scene changes again. Instead of forest, desert, wildflower-covered field, or grassy meadow there are a few rocks to climb (not difficult) to get to the top.
I have never seen a dandelion seed head this big before. I should have put a finger in the photo to give the viewer a point of reference. Usually they are smaller than a golf ball, but this one (and the others in the field on the Wagner Butte trail) was bigger than my fist.
The sign on the top of Wagner Butte has been there for probably a couple decades now. The elements have not been kind, and it is now barely readable.
Looking west (and maybe a bit south) from the western slopes of Wagner Butte yields the above view which is probably Little Applegate in the foreground. I’m not sure what mountain ranges go beyond that.
As I mentioned yesterday, sometimes the landscape can get a bit desert like; however, frequently there are wildflowers right in the middle of these scenes. I wonder how different this view would be in the morning (or a month or two earlier). I took this photo in the late afternoon in early September.
Along the Wagner Butte trail you cross a dozen or so streams. This late in the year they were mostly a trickle of water, but in spring, or while it is raining, I imagine they can be somewhat tricky to cross. This one was probably twenty feet across of mud in early September so crossing over via the log helped to keep shoes from becoming a mess even without a small river coming down the mountainside.
My new 10-24mm lens can do some pretty cool things in the macro photography world, nice bokeh too. I was surprised how close I could get and still focus. The specs said the minimum focus distance was 9.5 inches, but I was less than that far away on this photo (and even closer on some others I’ll show you in the next few days). My other lens really does require a distance between the end of the lens and the focus subject of at least a foot and a half.
This flower probably looked much better a week or two earlier in the year. I’d like to do this hike in, say, July and then again in September of the same year to compare the wildflowers. Do some last all summer long or are there totally different wildflowers blossoming and dying as the summer progresses?
I don’t believe I’ve ever been on a trail with so many varieties of surroundings as the Wagner Butte Trail. You can be under a forest canopy one minute, have lush vegetation under foot the next, follow it up walking through a meadow of wildflowers, and then be in a desert-like atmosphere soon thereafter. The views change constantly as well. Change is the only constant throughout.
Sunday I hiked the Wagner Butte Trail for the fourth time. This was only the second time I made it to the top. My first two attempts were with my kids when they were little so we only went for a mile or two. The entire hike is over 10 miles and includes climbing (and then descending) over 2,200 feet.
I brought along my new lens (Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 DI II Lens) so I have far more than a week’s worth of photography for you. I’ll post several images a day and save some for later. For today, I’ll just explain how to get there (and post some rather uninteresting images that may help in orientation) as most guide books and internet sites give incomplete and/or erroneous directions.
Wagner Butte Trail begins southwest of Ashland. However, to get there, you need to go through Talent (to the northwest of Ashland). You can also get there from the top of Mt. Ashland, but most people are coming from other places in the Rogue Valley, making the Talent route easier.
From Highway 99 (Pacific Highway) turn onto Rapp Road which will eventually turn into Wagner Creek Road. Follow Wagner Creek Road all the way out. When Wagner Creek Road turns into a dirt road, at a point crossing the creek, check your odometer. You will find the trail head 6.1 miles from this point. Continue on Wagner Creek Rd. It forks several times. Stay on the most developed road (usually a left at the forks). At mile 4 since you started on the dirt road you will find a cattle guard. Cross it and go left at the fork immediately in front of you. Only two more miles until the trail begins. At 6.1 miles you will see the sign in the first photo if you are traveling slowly enough and look to your left. Pull into the parking lot on your right, pictured above.
The most difficult part of Wagner Butte Trail is the first (and last) mile as it is fairly steep.
Bring lots of water. I brought 40 oz., and it wasn’t nearly enough. I could have used 80 ounces, but it was a warm/hot day. If the weather forecast in Ashland/Medford is for 80 degrees or more, bring at least 2 liters of water per person. Note that it won’t be as hot as Ashland or Medford at this altitude, but it will feel warmer than Ashland or Medford on the way up since you will be climbing. Bring a jacket for the way down if the forecast is for 70 degrees or less in Ashland/Medford.
Parking place for High Lakes Trail
This past week we went on a little family outing to the east of Ashland. We have done the trail from Lake of the Woods to Fish Lake before, but this was the first time we all made it for the entire round trip.
To avoid paying the $7 day-use fee by parking at one of the lakes, we parked at the sign pictured above which is approximately where the A is on the map below.
Biking trail map for Lake of the Woods
At this point we made a mistake and went to the right since the sign says Fish Lake is to the right. This does not put you on the High Lakes Trail (which is what you want if you are hiking or biking). Instead, it puts you on the Resort Trail which looks like an old car trail. The Resort Trail is anything but resort-like, and it eventually disappears, but not before you have to carry your bike over lots of fallen trees and ride over other rather difficult terrain. To avoid this pitfall, keep going down the road (to the left toward Brown Mountain Trail) in the top photo a bit (maybe 20 yards) and then hang a right on High Lakes Trail.
More photos and info to come in the next week…
My first time down White Rabbit was New Year’s Day in 2001. The weather was warm, and I was a rather unexperienced mountain biker at the time. This trail is not for the beginner. There are some serious drops in a few places that aren’t even easy when you walk the trail. The names of the side trails are all Alice in Wonderland themed. For a map and directions see my prior post.
I took today’s photo last week on White Rabbit Trail, less than half a mile from Park Street.