For this, our last day in Eastern Oregon, we wanted a short, but view-filled, hike. A scramble up Gunsight Mountain, near Anthony Lake in the Elkhorns, seemed ideal. This hike is #50 in Bond’s 75 Scrambles in Oregon (2005).
From Baker City, Oregon, we drove up to Anthony Lake and parked in the day use area in front of the rental cabin. From there we had a great view of Gunsight Mountain across Anthony Lake.
We then hiked around the lake to the Hoffer Lakes Trailhead and hiked a short 0.5 miles up to the lower Hoffer Lake.
We went around the east side of this lake until we came to the small falls between the two lakes,
then turned due east and headed cross-country directly up Gunsight’s west ridge. The ridge isn’t particularly steep until maybe 200 feet below the summit but it’s always just pure scrambling – no handholds and footholds stuff.
From the summit, we had a great view of Anthony and Lilly Pad Lakes to the north,
and of Angell Peak to the south.
Scrambles has you descending to the saddle between Gunsight and Angell, then dropping back into the Hoffer Lakes basin. We did descend to the saddle, getting a nice view of Van Patten Butte along the way,
but then headed down due east over easy terrain to intersect the Elkhorn Crest Trail just below Angell Pass. We took that trail back to the trailhead, passing Black Lake along the way. A very short (4.8 miles roundtrip; 1,200 feet of elevation gain), easy, but fun, scramble with big views.
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