Canyon Creek Meadows trail still beautiful after forest fire

After the B and B Complex fire ravaged the area, we avoided central Oregon’s Canyon Creek Meadows trail. We figured it’d be too depressing to walk through burnt trees. Today we were proven wrong,

Even back in 2005, just two years after the summer of 2003 fire, William (Bill) Sullivan and other lovers of this area said that that it still had “corners of wonder.”

Well, I’m about to show you that this is an understatement in 2007. There are whole boulevards of wonder – including the burned areas.

Directions to the trail head are online and in various hiking books, including Sullivan’s guide to the Central Oregon Cascades. It starts from the Jack Lake parking area. The road to Jack Lake is passable with any sort of vehicle. Just be ready for some teeth-rattling washboarding.

Have $5 to plunk into a box if you don’t have an annual National Forest Trail Pass. We were pleased to pay. The hike is priceless. And the outhouse at the parking lot was spanking clean. Odor-free even.

The Canyon Creek Meadows trail starts off from the right side of the parking lot. Right away you know you’re entering a burned area.

We didn’t see any wildlife during our almost six mile hike. No deer. Not even any birds. But I guess this curious chipmunk qualifies. Our dog loves to chase little critters. He seemed to be taunting her.

Regrowth is well under way without any help from humans. Which is how the aftermath of all wildfires should be handled, in our opinion. Nature knows what it’s doing. Logging and seeding aren’t necessary. (This is in the Jefferson Wilderness Area, so it wouldn’t be permitted anyway).

Witness this area. A profusion of young trees.

Because the area is so heavily hiked, you’re requested to use a clockwise one-way loop system. On the outbound loop there’s a convenient dog rest area about half way along. Handy in the summer heat.

After some ups and downs we were rewarded with a gorgeous view of Three Fingered Jack. The mountain always makes me think “Mordor.” Yet without the evil. A bit sinister looking, though.

Here I am in the lower meadow. Some late July snow is beside my left ear.

Here’s Laurel and Serena, the chipmunk chasing dog, on a bridge in the lower meadow. Mordor, oops, Three Fingered Jack, looms behind them.

Wildflowers are still in full bloom well into the summer up this high (around 5,500 feet).

Oh, yeah. They’re blooming.

We decided to continue on to the upper meadow. It’s about .7 of a mile. Fairly steep in places.

But the view of Three Fingered Jack along the way is worth it.

Along with the view from the rim of the upper meadow once we staggered our way to a lunch-eating rock.

This was the closest we got to Three Fingered Jack. Beautiful.

Heading back down the trail we got a great overview of the B and B Complex burned acreage. Which was disturbingly large. The Canyon Creek Meadows area, fortunately, is an oasis of green.

On the return loop the trail follows Canyon Creek for quite a ways. It also passes over some small creeks, like this mossy gem.

Here’s a bunch of logs that have fallen across Canyon Creek. Reminds me of playing with Tinker Toys.

There’s beauty in the burned areas also. My Tai Chi instructor’s wife is Japanese. Warren said that when her relatives came to visit and saw burned areas along Highway 20, they took lots of photos and said “How beautiful.” Yes.

I kept seeing the play of yin and yang as I walked along. White and black. Life and death. Devastation and regrowth.

I don’t know much about burls. But these sure are burly, whatever caused them.

One benefit of the fire, for hikers, is the much more open views you have along the trail. Mt. Jefferson would have been barely visible, if at all, before the fire. Now, it says “Hi” to passers by.

We got plenty dusty on the hike. Jack Lake was impossible to pass up at the end of the trail.

Bottom line: don’t pass up a chance to hike the Canyon Creek Meadows trail. The burned areas make it more interesting, not less. Beauty still is evident every step of the way.