5 miles of hiking • 750' elevation gain •
Read about the "northernmost stand of rare cyprus trees" and thought that would be a cool thing to check out. I wasn't too sure what a cyprus tree looked like, but I did know they were the rarest tree in North America, only growing in the Siskiyou Mountains, and therefore assumed they would be very interesting. It turns out they are just glorified Juniper bushes, who knew? The trail to these rare "trees" was nice, there were several stunning meadows with views of snowy peaks, some eerie burnt trees (apparently Cyprus only grown in areas that have had a fire) Many of the cyprus were in cages....like a tomato plant.
Another short trail originates from the trailhead and leads up to "Flounce Rock" which has a great view of Lost Creek Reservoir and the Rogue valley. The view was so nice in fact I didn't notice that right behind me was a PET CEMETERY! Doggy gravestones everywhere, one even read "Some Angels wear fur". I am not sure whether this is creepy or endearing; also not sure how the Forest Service feels about their land being used for this...
Checked out the Rogue natural bridge earlier in the day(which was flooded, therefore not a bridge) had intended to hike to the Rogue gorge, but the trail was pretty crowded (probably due to all the snow on all the good trails) so we turned back and decided to just embrace the damn snow and head up to Crater Lake since it was a clear day.
