Golden Lake is Not an Easy Hike

For Central Oregon residents and visitors looking for a great day hike, there are a good number of options available. For many, a hike of 2 to 4 miles to an amazing destination followed by the same distance back can create a full day with time to relax and enjoy both the original destination and the time back home. However, for those wishing to see more in the Cascade forests besides what is seen in a day hike, many will backpack and spend more time enjoying the destination before venturing further or coming back. 

Golden Lake is one of those rarely seen destinations. It can be accessed through multiple approaches. These include the popular Green Lakes Trail in which hikers walk past the northern most Green Lake and travel above the valley to the pass between South Sister and Broken Top and then down the path that leads to Park Meadow, making sure they take the unmarked trail off this path and hike the half mile to Golden Lake. Another approach is from Three Creeks Lake, taking the Park Meadow trail and hiking through and past Park Meadow towards Green Lakes and then taking the unmarked trail to Golden Lake. Both approaches are over seven miles one direction, but the approach from Three Creeks Lake is a little shorter.

Hikers coming from Three Creeks Lake are required to walk through four miles of burned forest, the result of the Milli Fire seven years ago. There is beauty, however, in the recovering forest with many wildflowers and young trees growing back. Past the burned area, hikers enter forest before they reach Park Meadow, which was untouched by fire and a place many backpackers will spend the night. The trail steepens past park Meadow and after another mile and a half, the turn off to Golden Lake is reached.

The name for Golden Lake is obvious during certain times of the year when yellow wildflowers are blooming in the meadow that surrounds the lake. The lake itself can reflect Broken Top, South, Middle and North Sisters on calm days. The setting is serene and lovely with very few people around. 

However, one of the most special things about Golden Lake is the small stream which flows into the western side of the lake. Besides the numerous wildflowers growing on each side of the stream, people who take the time to hike the mile up that stream reach an isolated area that very few people ever visit. That last mile is steep, but the cascading stream with its wildflowers and ever changing views of the Three Sisters are amazing. At the end of the stream is a moraine which contains two springs which form the stream. People who scramble up the moraine will reach an isolated tarn lake and past that, another moraine and a second tarn lake even more special than the first. This second lake has phenomenal reflections and views of Broken Top. For those who are able to travel the entire distance, the reward can be some of the most breathtaking natural sights in Central Oregon. It is truly an exceptional place.

For those having enough energy to do the entire hike in a day starting from and returning to Three Creeks Lake, plan on sixteen miles (eight in the burned forest) and over 2000 feet of elevation gain. 

Original blog can be read at Bend Premier Real Estate's website.