58 min
Overview
NOTICE: Trails in this area were affected by the 2020 Lionshead Fire. Please check current closures in the Mt. Hood National Forest before planning an outing. This loop begins at the north end of the Olallie Lake Scenic Area and heads around old moraine ridges and lake basins on four different trails. You will pass several lakes, a few of which are eminently swimmable on a warm summer's day. Many of the lakes have campsites. Lesser scaups and pied-billed grebes scoot long on these quiet waters in the summer and there are some great huckleberry patches ("Olallie" is Chinook jargon for huckleberry). A couple of good side trips, totalling about a mile, visit Gifford Lake and Top Lake. The return to the trailhead involves walking about a mile along FR 4220 (Skyline Road). Take the Fish Lake Trail #717 from the parking area at the Lower Lake Campground. Head up a rise among silver fir, huckleberry, grouseberry, and bear-grass. The trail soon drops under lodgepole pine, silver fir, mountain hemlock and western white pine. Reach Lower Lake and amble along its northern shore. There are campsites at the far end before you cross a creek. At the Fish Lake-Lodgepole Trail Junction, go left on the Lodgepole Trail #706. Soon come to an unmarked use trail leading left to Gifford Lake. If you want to take this diversion, head up a rise and then down to Gifford Lake, where you will find a campsite and a small peninsula that splits the lake. There's a view to Olallie Butte on the left and Twin Peaks on the right. Back at the main trail, go left up a rocky, eroded path to a crest. Here you can find rocky-shored Middle Lake, more swimmable than some of the other lakes, which have vast expanses of shallow water. Head up over a rocky ridge and reach a small, wet meadow with a tarn on the left. Then descend on a rocky tread down to a shallow lake in a flat area and the Red Lake-Lodgepole Trail Junction: if you want to visit shallow Fork Lake, go 100 yards down the Red Lake Trail. Return to the junction and keep straight (right
Trail Stats
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291 m
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Photos
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