Collier Loop Part 2: Pacific Crest Trail Section Scott Meadow to Glacier Creek

Left to right: North Sister, Middle Sister, and Little Brother from the PCT

Distance: 4.6 miles one-way

Maximum Elevation: 6200 feet

Minimum Elevation: 7200 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 1200 feet

A continuation of Collier Loop Part 1

Shortly after beginning this next section of the loop, I passed a fellow hiker along the trail, doing the same hike but in the opposite direction. He said great views were awaiting – in fact, he said his friend had called this section of the PCT one of his favorite parts of the entire 2,650-mile trek.

I would quickly find out why. The trail passes through meadows, forest, a spring, lava planes, and jagged obsidian crevices, to climax on a side trail up Collier Cone’s alpine viewpoint at the foot of the North and Middle Sisters. The spectacular views of some of the central Cascades’ best seemed to never cease on this four and a half-mile stretch of trail. 

Minnie Scott Spring

After turning right onto the PCT from Scott Trail, you’ll head south through the meadow with the North and Middle Sisters dominating your horizon. After leaving the meadow and crossing through a forested section, you’ll reach Minnie Scott Spring about 1.5 miles down the trail. 

The spring lives up to its name. At its deepest, it may be a couple inches. It’s enough to filter water from, though, making it the only reliable water source so far since starting the loop. No other water source exists until you reach Glacier Creek about another three miles further on, so don’t wait to fill up if you’re thirsty. A camping spot or two also might be found close by the spring. 

Another Smeagol picture in the lava

Then the trail heads in earnest into the lava flows. Directly ahead, its red pumice splotched with snow, 7,800-foot Little Brother doesn’t look so little anymore. 

At 1.8 miles from Scott Trail meadows, a massive grey cinder cone rises to the left – Collier Cone. At this point, the PCT veers to the right to skirt the rugged slopes of Little Brother. This will be the eventual route. First, be sure to take a slight left on a smaller side-trail. Its only .3 miles one-way and the views are spectacular. 

It first winds around jagged obsidian crags, then winds through Collier Crater, a moonscape of alpine flowers and pumice at the base of the cinder cone. It climbs the crater wall, a small lava tube off to

Collier Crater

the right, to reach the viewpoint’s crest. North Sister reaches up jagged to the front left. Middle rises up behind Collier Glacier, a huge chunk of ice once known as Oregon’s largest glacier. To the right is Little Brothers, from this view just as impressive as his bigger siblings. Directly below is a murky lake, the rock-mixed meltwater of Collier Glacier.

After you’ve had your fill of the viewpoint, retrace your steps and continue down the PCT for a final couple miles. 

It continues through the lava, then drops down in a series of tight switchbacks to enter forest again. Finally, it opens in meadow to the sound of running water as you reach the Glacier Creek intersection. A beautiful, meadow-framed view of Middle Sister awaits you at the turnoff.

Part three of the loop can be found here.

For more High Cascade adventures, check out my Cascade Crest page.

North Sister and Middle Sister from the Collier  Crater viewpoint

Collier Loop Part 1: Scott Trail and 4-In-1 Cone

North Sister, Middle Sister, and Little Brother from Four-In-One Cone

Distance: 4.8 miles one way

Maximum Elevation: 6270 feet

Minimum Elevation: 4760 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 1600 feet

Directions: From McKenzie Bridge, head east on Highway 126. Turn right onto Highway 242/Old McKenzie Pass. Between mileposts 71 and 72, turn left at the sign for Scott Lake. Take an immediate right into the Scott Trail parking area. 

When summer weather opens the gates to the winding Highway 242, drivers can access a moonscape of high-altitude lava fields and cinder cones under the shadow of the majestic Three Sisters. Views from the top of the pass are incredible, but heading out on foot into its midst is even better. 

North and Middle Sister from lava fields

Scott Trail gets you into the thick of it. Named after Captain Felix Scott who blazed it as a wagon route 153 years ago, it meanders under mountain hemlock forests, climbs over a jagged lava flow, and ends in a beautiful blue lupine meadow as it junctions with the Pacific Crest Trail. 

Turning right (south) onto the PCT takes you on a 15-mile loop to cover some of the coolest country in the northwest region of the Three Sisters Wilderness. 

Before getting there, however, don’t miss Four-In-One Cone, where a .8-mile side-trip heads up to four craters stuck together by a long, cinder ridge yielding views of the all the Cascade peaks from the Middle Sister in the south to Mount Hood in the North. 

Front left to back right: Belknap Crater (Little Beltknap is the dark mound to its right), Mount Washington, Three Fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson. Mount hood is the small white tip just to the right of Jefferson. It's much easier to see in person.

The trail begins at the Scott Lake trailhead. It heads east, crosses the highway, and continues on to a junction .3 miles from the car. The left trail continues the adventure. Going right is a connector trail to the Obsidian Trailhead (Part 3 of Collier Loop, coming soon). Don’t pass up the tiny wild strawberries along the trail in midsummer. They might be smaller than your thumbnail, but a ripe one packs the flavor of a whole crate of the domestic kind. As the elevation increases, mountain blueberries and huckleberries also join the trailside buffet. 

Conks!

In three miles from the car, prepare to cross a river of lava – thankfully frozen. By scrabbling up its craggy chunks of broken surface rock, you may be rewarded in views of the surrounding mountains. Otherwise, hike another mile and a half, crossing a tree island in the middle of the basalt flow and following the flow to cinder fields dotted with trees, and find a rock cairn. To your left will be a mound of charcoal-grey cinders. Here, a trail veers off left towards the mound’s crest. Slog up the dune-like terrain, and find yourself atop Four-In-One Cone.

North Sister, Middle Sister, and Little Brother are the behemoths dominating your southern view. Mount Washington, Three-Fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson, and Mount Hood are the peaks visible to the north. 

My brother Smeagol-posing atop a lava crag

After heading back down the cone (classified as such only geologically; geometrically you’d think it more a weird, elongated blob), continue a final .8 mile to the PCT junction; the meadows surrounding yielding a great view of the North and Middle sister. 

Here, a choice is to be made. You can make the trip an out-and-back by just retracing the route back to the car. You can head 6 miles north on the PCT, passing the Matthieu Lakes and Yapoah Crater, to McKenzie Pass. By doing so, you’d probably need a car shuttle to get back to the Scott Trail parking lot. Or, you can head south on the PCT to complete the 17-mile loop, heading down the PCT for three miles to Glacier Creek, then heading west on Glacier Creek 4.8 miles to the Obsidian trailhead and taking the .6-mile connector back to Scott Trail and the car.

The second part of this loop, the Pacific Crest Trail section, can be found here.

For more High Cascade adventures, check out my Cascade Crest page here.

The meadows at the Scott-PCT junction