- HIKING TRAILS AND WILDFLOWERS by Keith and Barbro McCree -
The Alpine trail is about 23 km (14 miles) long, with a moderate grade (an average of 15%). You can easily divide the hike into sections by driving up logging roads to trail crossings.
The trail starts just above the Middle Fork of the Willamette River near Oakridge, at an altitude of 360 m (1,200 ft.) above sea level. A wildfire swept over the first few kilometers in the summer of 2002. The trail climbs a ridge between the Middle and North Forks. The highest point on Sourgrass Mountain is 1,460 m (4,800 ft.). There are good views of the Oregon Cascade mountains to the east and the Willamette Valley to the west from several points on the trail.
The trail runs through many different types of vegetation, including some fine samples of old growth forest. Since this trail is not in a designated wilderness area, almost all of the ancient forest that used to cover much of this area has been logged.
Wildflowers cover the open areas around the rock outcrops that line the ridge. We have counted over 80 species of the more common Oregon wildflowers along the trail. Flowering starts in early spring at the lower altitudes, and continues into midsummer at the highest point on the trail. The adjoining section of the Tire Mountain Trail also features rock outcrops and masses of wildflowers.
Unfortunately, this beautiful trail is the venue of the Cascade Cream Puff, a mountain bike race which involves riding up Sourgrass Mountain on logging roads and coming down as fast as possible on the Alpine trail and adjacent trails, twice in one day. We consider this to be an irresponsible use of mountain bikes on hiking trails. We think that turning this wildflower sanctuary into a race track is a terrible idea.
A list of wildflowers found on the Alpine
trail
(typical of the lists that we have published for all 90 trails)
Scenes from the Alpine trail
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