This hike is advertised as one of the 5 best wildflower hikes in the state of Oregon. I don't know if that is true or not, but the flowers plus tossing in a couple of peaks made for a really fun loop trip.
We drove Highway 20 ~37 miles west from Sisters, Oregon, and parked (~4220') at Tombstone Pass... where we decided to do the loop in a counter-clockwise direction... starting out on the Tombstone Prairie Nature Trail #3419 which we followed for a half-mile before crossing Hwy 20 and starting up Cone Peak Trail #3408.
After hiking the Cone Peak Trail for ~1.5 miles (2 miles total), we came out of the woods into a large meadow (~4800') that was filled with a large variety of beautiful wildflowers where we probably spent 30 minutes taking photos before continuing on the trail for another quarter-mile where Denali Girl and I briefly parted ways. She continued on the trail for Iron Mountain while I headed cross-country up the SW ridge of Cone Peak.
The route up the SW ridge of Cone Peak was fairly steep in places, but no more involved than Class 2... and it did offer a nice look over at the 4 summits of Echo Mountain and a closer look at Mt. Jefferson than offered by Iron Mountain.
Leaving the summit of Cone Peak I took a slightly different route down (more southern than southwestern) to reconnect with the Cone Peak Trail... which I followed over to the north side of Iron Mountain... then followed it around to the west side of the mountain where I picked up the Iron Mountain Trail that I followed .7 miles up to the summit (5440+).
Denali Girl was enjoying the summit views when I arrived... relaxing on the 15 seat platform that was constructed in 2007 when they removed the lookout.
Leaving the Iron Mountain summit we traced our steps back to the Iron/Cone trail junction... then hiked another mile on the Iron Mountain Trail down to Hwy 20... where we crossed the highway and quickly connected with the Santiam Wagon Road Trail #3413... which we followed for a half-mile back to Tombstone Pass and our car.
My loop trip was 8 miles, gaining 2886 feet of elevation... skip Cone Peak and the loop would have been closer to 6.5 miles, gaining closer to 2100 feet of elevation.
Photos, trailhead directions and downloadable GPS track of our loop trip to Cone Peak and Iron Mountain.
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"Teanaway 70" Peaks List... a guide to hiking and scrambling in the Teanaway Area.
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"Teanaway 70" Peaks List... a guide to hiking and scrambling in the Teanaway Area.
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