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| Eastern Slopes   | 
| Page Type: Route Location: Oregon, United States, North America Route Type: Hike, some scrambling Time Required: Most of a day Difficulty: Walk-up, scrambling
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| Page By: Popoff Created/Edited: Oct 22, 2002 / Feb 11, 2005 Object ID: 157196 Hits: 745 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Approach
From Klamath Falls, drive east on Highway 140 towards Lakeview for about 55 miles. 1.4 miles beyond the town of Bly, take a left on Campbell Road for sbout 0.5 mile, and then turn right onto paved Road 34 for about 15 miles. At a sign for the Corral Creek Campground, turn left on Road 012 (gravel) for 1.5 miles to the trailhead (the end of the road). This is the approach to the eastern slopes of the mountain (and the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness).
Route Description
At the trailhead, a road to the right leads 0.2 mile up Lookout Rock's fire lookout. The route up Gearhart, however, starts with a trail on the left side of the trailhead turnaround. Follow the trail. After 0.7 mile you will go through The Palisades, a land of volcanic pinnacles, some over 30 feet high. Another 4 miles down the trail, you will end up on a high saddle, about 300 vertical feet below the summit, with views up to the crags of the summit. The trail continues down the saddle to the headwaters of Dairy Creek, BUT DO NOT FOLLOW THIS PORTION OF THE TRAIL! Instead, hike cross-country to the left and find a gap in the cliffs. Follow this up to the summit plateau. This part of the route is a scramble. Once on the summit plateau, however, follow it to the summit (about 1.5 miles away).
Essential Gear
Bring along lots of water (there is none along the trail, except for Dairy Creek).
Other Routes
It's 4.7 miles to the saddle where you head west up the slope off trail. When you reach the rock outcropping, traverse left around the back side until you see easy 2nd or 3rd class rock to get up. Then head north along the ridge to the summit. Keep the cliffs on your right about 50 yards away, I kept weaving back and forth to make sure I was heading the right way. When you see a group of blocky basalt pillars on your left, make sure you keep them on your left and the cliffs on your right. Angle back to the cliffs from there and walk easy ground to the summit pinnacles. Watch out for rattlesnakes.
A variation to this is to continue on the trail to the basin from the saddle. There is a trail about 1.3 miles to the notch below the summit cliffs and you get to travel through a few really neat meadows. Once you reach the Notch, there is a faint climbers trail to the cliffs. Looks like you can climb 3rd or 4th class to the summit from there. Or, traverse right around 3 gulleys and then head up easy 3rd class (but loose) to the summit. This way, you stay on trail most of the way and have less chance of getting lost, plus you get in some scrambling too.
(Info courtesy of Brian Jenkins).
Miscellaneous Info
If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.
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