Day 9, Hershberger Mtn
The swan song of our anniversary adventure, we headed back to Medford to pick up the youngest child and the dogs and to stay a couple of days enjoying more of the Ashland / Medford area. But first one more bit of sightseeing, and an adventure for the new car. We planned a stop at Hershberger Mountain to see the lava formation called "The Rabbit Ears" and climb up to the lookout at the summit for a view of the whole area including Mt Thielson and the Crater Lake area. After a beautiful morning drive with a couple perfect views of the "Lightning Rod of the Cascades" we hit the cutoff to Hershberger.
According to the description in Bill Sullivan's book the road up gets narrow and rougher as you go... and he wasn't kidding. After about 5 miles we stopped off for a quick look at the base of the rabbit ears and marveled at their sheer size. They are way bigger than we expected. Unfortunately it is a limited view and they are best seen from the summit or down on the highway but up there you can REALLY see how massive they are. As we went up the next few miles the warning about the road became very true. Down to one lane on the edge of a drop-off with few pullouts and many sections that would be described as very rutted rocky loose narrow and any other scary term about a road you don't really want to be on. We met a couple forest service trucks coming down and had to... gulp!, back down the road and find a loose narrow pullout 1/4 mile down to let them pass. Wouldn't want to do that again. The drivers were shaking their heads at us and Rosita, which I'm sure they didn't think to be the proper vehicle to drive up that road. Then up we went. By the time we made it up to a quarter mile from the summit I was stressed and warn out, my nerves were completely shot so we pulled over and walked the last little section. which ironically turned out to be easier than the lat mile or so we just drove.... oh well.
The summit was awesome, we were alone at the lookout with views of everything in the whole area on this perfect clear day and the only problem was the big flying bugs. They were SUPER annoying. So we headed back down, which always seems easier than driving up for some reason. A quick stop at the high campground where most people park to walk the last mile to the summit and a nice shot of the summit lookout and we drove back down through the pretty meadows, cool lava formations, and gorgeous views that make up Hershberger Mountain.
Well that's it the adventure over we went back to civilization good coffee, good food and comfy beds. Until next year...
According to the description in Bill Sullivan's book the road up gets narrow and rougher as you go... and he wasn't kidding. After about 5 miles we stopped off for a quick look at the base of the rabbit ears and marveled at their sheer size. They are way bigger than we expected. Unfortunately it is a limited view and they are best seen from the summit or down on the highway but up there you can REALLY see how massive they are. As we went up the next few miles the warning about the road became very true. Down to one lane on the edge of a drop-off with few pullouts and many sections that would be described as very rutted rocky loose narrow and any other scary term about a road you don't really want to be on. We met a couple forest service trucks coming down and had to... gulp!, back down the road and find a loose narrow pullout 1/4 mile down to let them pass. Wouldn't want to do that again. The drivers were shaking their heads at us and Rosita, which I'm sure they didn't think to be the proper vehicle to drive up that road. Then up we went. By the time we made it up to a quarter mile from the summit I was stressed and warn out, my nerves were completely shot so we pulled over and walked the last little section. which ironically turned out to be easier than the lat mile or so we just drove.... oh well.
The summit was awesome, we were alone at the lookout with views of everything in the whole area on this perfect clear day and the only problem was the big flying bugs. They were SUPER annoying. So we headed back down, which always seems easier than driving up for some reason. A quick stop at the high campground where most people park to walk the last mile to the summit and a nice shot of the summit lookout and we drove back down through the pretty meadows, cool lava formations, and gorgeous views that make up Hershberger Mountain.
Well that's it the adventure over we went back to civilization good coffee, good food and comfy beds. Until next year...