Maxwell Butte

As part of our Twin Lakes overnight llama hike, Dmitri and I ran up to the top of Maxwell Butte, a 6,225 ft tall volcanic plug on the south end of the Mount Jefferson Wilderness. There was quite a bit of snow on parts of the trail on the way up.

On the ascent, we got some great views of Mount Washington, North Sister, Middle or South Sister, Broken Top, and another mountain to the south. A little in front of the mountains you can see the butte where Hoodoo Ski Resort is located.

That’s Mount Jefferson to the north and a little to the left is Mount Hood.

Three Finger Jack to the east.

Dmitri decided he needed a good beefcake shot.

Howdy, y’all.

The geological survey benchmark set in 1928. I’m pretty sure the fine is much higher now.

Black Butte in the distance.

A panorama at the top of Maxwell Butte. Click on it for a larger version.

Last weekend my parents, Dmitri, and I went for an overnight training hike with four of our llamas. This is the second time that three of these llamas had been away from home. The last time was the previous weekend when we did a day hike to Duffy Lake.

After loading everyone up with packs and saddles, we headed up the trail toward Twin Lakes in the Jefferson Wilderness.

There were lots of downed trees on the trail. The Forest Service hasn’t made it to this trail to clear it out yet this year.

Very close to Twin Lakes there is a very nice parkland where we decided to make camp. The meadow has a fair amount of lupine in it but our llamas didn’t touch the poisonous plant. Instead, they ate all of the young, succulent grass.

We setup our cooking area on a good flat spot. This was our first trip with a real table. It was a nice addition.

My tent setup at the edge of the parkland.

At this point, Dmitri and I went on a hike up Maxwell Butte. Photos of that are available in a different post on this blog.

As the sun sank low in the west, we started a fire and ate our dinner.

The next morning.

There are many dead trees in the area. All of the lodgepole pine were killed off several years ago by bark beetles. Someday this area is going to have a good fire sweep through due to all of the dead standing and fallen timber.

It was a Quest for Fire morning on the lake.

Getting ready to head down the trail.

On the way down we ran into two people who run the Northwest Hiker website. They took pictures of our llamas. I wonder if we will appear on their website soon.

All the packs are off and put away. Time to load up the llamas and head home.

Tag: Maxwell Butte

Twin Lakes Overnight Llama Trip