1.8 hr
Overview
NOTICE: Trails in this area were affected by the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire. Please check current closures in the Willamette National Forest before planning an outing. The loop to the top of Battle Ax is probably the most scenic short loop in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness. You just have to endure the slow, rocky, potholed road up to Elk Lake in order to partake of the visual feast. You will pass a series of lush tarns, which harbor mosquitoes late into the summer, before gaining incredible views, from Mount Rainier to the Three Sisters as you switchback up to the old lookout site on Battle Ax’s summit ridge. Coming down the north ridge, you’ll get a glimpse of the formations on the mountain’s rugged west face as well as across to Mount Beachie’s spectacular northeast ridge. (NOTE: As of 2019 this route has not seen maintenance in quite some time. Expect fallen trees, brushy conditions, and places where the trail is sliding downhill.) Walk up the road in shady Douglas-fir, mountain hemlock, noble fir, and silver fir woods. In just over one-third of a mile, reach the Bagby Trailhead for Trail #544 and head up this trail. There’s a wilderness permit box here, but as of 2014 it was broken and out of use. Cross a small steam and switchback twice in a vine maple thicket. Traverse up the slope and switchback again to get a glimpse of Elk Lake below. Pass through a Sitka alder slide area, head up in a huckleberry/bear-grass understory, and switchback at another window in the forest, this view extending to Olallie Butte and Mount Jefferson. The trail levels at a tarn studded with bright yellow water lilies in the summer. Alaska yellow-cedar, noble fir, mountain boykinia, Sitka alder, and willow rim this quiet pond. Keep rising and spot a tarn meadow down to the right surrounded by large noble firs. The trail here is lined with sickle-top lousewort. Pass below a talus slope in a lush old growth noble fir/silver fir forest riddled with mountain beaver burrows. Wade through an extensive salmonberry thicket below a serie
Trail Stats
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537 m
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