Oregon’s Dazzling Secret Lake Gives Swimming, Berry-Choosing, And Kayak-In Island Camping

Hidden in a distant space of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains is a stunning secret lake, the place you possibly can kayak to your individual private island to spend the evening below the towering summit of Diamond Peak. The appropriately named Summit Lake has an elevation of 5,600 toes and is a part of the glaciated basin beneath Diamond Peak, so its crystal clear waters that transition between turquoise, gold, and sapphire are fed totally by snowmelt. While it is solely accessible through a tough and troublesome forest street (solely try it with a 4WD or high-clearance automobile), the trouble is value it to succeed in this serene location the place you possibly can kayak to a lot of basalt rock formations to camp in your very personal island for the evening. In reality, it is one of many solely mountain lakes within the state the place you are able to do so.

If you are within the temper for a fruity deal with, paddle over to Berry Island and decide berries within the huckleberry groves, earlier than setting out throughout this lake’s water that is so clear, you possibly can see the shadow of your boat trailing throughout the underside. Otherwise, take your decide from the boat-in islands off the lake’s peninsula, and benefit from the solitude on this epic panorama of pine-covered islands with basalt rocks and sandy shores, the place you possibly can swim and kayak to your coronary heart’s content material. It’s not solely water actions right here both, as there are a handful of mountaineering trails close to the lake, together with a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail that results in the highest of Diamond Peak, the place you possibly can get pleasure from a completely completely different however equally awe-inspiring view of Summit Lake, one among Oregon’s greatest secret glistening lakes.

Considering its distant location and distinctive characteristic of islands the place you possibly can camp, there are some things guests ought to pay attention to when visiting Summit Lake to ensure they’ve the very best expertise potential. It’s potential to canoe as an alternative of kayak; it simply will depend on your desire so far as carrying the gear you want, notably should you’re taking a solo tenting journey. Among these necessities, do not forget to convey a shovel to take care of bodily waste since this secluded location is not precisely serviced by trash collectors. Unfortunately, some haven’t gotten the memo, so you could encounter the remnants of earlier campers on the islands and pullouts of Summit Lake. 

If you’d reasonably do some extra conventional mainland tenting as an alternative, the Summit Lake campground has a number of free, first-come, first-served websites simply northwest of the lake’s peninsula. Here, you will discover a number of picnic tables and hearth pits, plus a single-vault rest room and the boat-launching space. There are additionally dispersed tenting websites across the lake. The campground presents entry to the Emigrant’s Pass/PCT trailhead that leads about 5.75 miles as much as the highest of Diamond Peak through a troublesome however rewarding path.

As they are saying, “beauty is pain,” and so it’s with a shocking website like Summit Lake, which is understood to have clouds of exceptionally brutal mosquitoes that one can think about exists in one among Dante’s circles of hell, not in a refreshing Oregonian paradise. But alas, so it’s, so convey tons of mosquito spray however actually, the most suitable choice is to think about avoiding the summer season months and going after August to keep away from Summit Lake’s annual mosquito conference.

Located simply over an hour from Oakridge and just below two hours from Eugene, Summit Lake is just accessible by automobile and a high-clearance one at that. You have Forest Service Road 6010 to thank for that, a very treacherous stretch due to its deep potholes and boulder-lined stretches. It turns into much more troublesome to drive within the early summer season, when the springtime snowmelt makes it muddier and extra harmful. All the roads round Summit Lake are primitive and require an excellent quantity of endurance (plus a 4WD).

There are two routes to succeed in this pristine oasis: The shorter one from Oakridge goes previous Crescent Lake, however it has an extended stretch on the infamous FSR 6010, whereas the longer route takes the paved Forest Service Road 21 that is simply south of Oakridge and goes to NF-2154 south of the lake, so you possibly can spend much less time on the FSR 6010. While the journey to get to Summit Lake might sound intimidating, it is positively doable, and greater than that, it is value it to succeed in this distinctive location that stands out among the many many clear lakes hidden in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains.