Belknap Crater

On a late August sojourn, Steve Still (above, right) and I joined fellow Eugene Water & Electric Board retiree Bob Lorenzen (above, left) for a hike up Belknap Crater near McKenzie Pass. The route follows the Pacific Crest Trail northbound into the Mt. Washington Wilderness. 

Crossing a massive lava flow for the first couple of miles, the rocky, jagged route features lava blobs, pressure ridges and forested islands that survived the aftermath of eruptions from both Belknap Crater and Little Belknap, a small lava dome just a short hop to the east.

Belknap Crater is a classic shield volcano with a capping cinder cone (above). Once on top, the views of North and Middle Sisters (South Sister is hidden behind the other two) to the south and Mt. Washington (below) to the north were spectacular.

The trail begins by crossing two “islands” surrounded by lava. The second island features dry manzanita and ponderosa pine on the sunny southern slope, while the cooler northern face is moist enough to support huckleberry and subalpine fir. 

The hike along the lava flow is rugged, to say the least. After the surface solidified, liquid basalt flowed underneath the crust, creating pressure ridges and leaving lava caves and a handful of resolute whitebark pines and penstemons.

Neither peak compares to the Three Sisters (below) or Mt. Washington in terms of size -- though Belknap Crater, the larger of the two, nearly tops out at 7,000 feet. On average, both have erupted about every 1,000 years or so since the last Ice Age.