Rainy Lake Loop Hike

Overview

This is a shorter, family-friendly version of the Green Point Mountain Loop Hike which still takes in the summit of Green Point Mountain itself as well as Rainy Lake. You'll experience some old growth montane forest on the Rainy-Wahtum Trail, visit a World War II signal hut, get big views to Mount Defiance, Mount Adams, and Mount Hood, and then walk the low dam wall at Rainy Lake. From the Rainy Lake Trailhead, walk to your left to the beginning of the Rainy-Wahtum Trail #409. The trail follows the route of the old Wahtum Lake Road, a narrow, nail-biting, rock strewn nightmare according to those who drove it back in the day. Cross a seep vegetated with skunk-cabbage, salmonberry, and arrow-leaf groundsel, and step over an old berm. This is an old-growth montane forest of tall Douglas-fir, mountain hemlock, noble fir, and silver fir. Hike up to old wooden gate posts on either side of the road. Two hundred yards from the posts, you'll pass the almost imperceptible junction with the abandoned Black Lake Trail (see the Black Lake from Rainy Lake Hike). Keep rising on a wet trail, and pass below a cliff face before crossing a talus slope rimmed with vine maple. Reach the Gorton Creek-Herman Creek Cutoff-Rainy Wahtum Trail Junction, and note the old World War II signal hut at the beginning of the Herman Creek Cutoff Trail. Make a sharp right onto the Gorton Creek Trail #408. Swish gradually up through huckleberry bushes in montane forest. Pass a rock outcropping, and veer towards the eastern rim of Green Point Mountain. Heading up over the summit of the mountain, you will find a couple of viewpoints past the lodgepole pines to the right offering expansive vistas to Mount Defiance, Mount Adams and Goat Rocks. Look back also to Mount Hood. Steep andesite cliffs and scree lead down to Rainy Lake. Continue on down the ridge crest in a bear-grass understory to reach the four-way Gorton Creek-Green Point Ridge-North Lake Trail Junction. Make a right to descend a rocky slope supporting lupine and clumps of pinemat manz

Trail Stats

Photos

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350px-RainyLakeLoopMap

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250px-GreenPointMt2

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250px-World_War_II_signal_hut%2C_Herman_Cutoff_Trail

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250px-A-frame_outhouse%2C_Rainy_Lake_Campground

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400px-Rainy_Lake_and_Mt

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