A low pressure front was scheduled to move through our area yesterday, bringing a (too) brief taste of fall (but no real precipitation) to our area. This seemed like the perfect moment to do the short, but fun, hike/scramble to the summit of Cowhorn Mountain, just north of Diamond Lake. Back before Cowhorn’s cow-horn shaped summit spine fell off in 1911, this peak was called Little Cowhorn to distinguish it from Mount Thielsen, which was then called Big Cowhorn. This is Hike #14 in Sullivan’s Southern Oregon hiking guide (Third Edition, 2014) and scramble #17 in Bond’s 2005 75 Scrambles in Oregon.
The hike starts at Windigo Pass, which has good gravel road access off Highway 138 about five miles north of Diamond Lake. From there, I just followed the wonderfully well-graded Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) north past Windigo Lake,
for about 2 miles for a first view of Cowhorn Mountain and its west ridge – the route to the summit.
The weather was a bipolar mix of sunbreaks and rain/snow squalls, with a brisk, cold wind to discourage doodling. From the PCT, I managed to catch a glimpse of Diamond Peak as it was being enveloped by incoming clouds.
The turn-off from the PCT to the summit use trail is marked with a few small cairns. The use trail is well-used and obvious and leads up through the trees to the open ridge below the summit.
From here, I had another view of Diamond Peak to the west,
of Crescent Lake to the north,
and of Mount Thielsen (which sounds better than Big Cowhorn) and Mount Bailey to the south.
The wind was whipping across the ridge and it was cold enough, and just barely wet enough, to allow for build-up of the first frost I’ve seen in months.
The only scrambling on this peak is up the last 100 feet or so of the rocky prominence that is the summit – not much exposure and lots to hang on to.
From the wind-swept summit, I had a good view back down the west ridge toward Sawtooth Mountain.
During a brief break in the weather, I had a pretty good view all around, but then another line of squalls arrived to blanket Diamond Peak,
and then Mount Thielsen.
This loss of views (and the cold wind) killed my enthusiasm for lunch on the summit, so I descended toward the tree line, passing four mountain bikers taking time for a quick ascent of Cowhorn. Their presence allowed me to get some perspective of the summit ridge from the relative comfort of the trees.
I snacked in the windbreak afforded by the trees. By the time I’d finished my snack, Cowhorn was socked in again and it was definitely time to head back to the trailhead.
A straight forward hike and simple scramble (9.4 miles round-trip; 1,900 feet of elevation gain) to a summit with big views all around. Because their respective trailheads are close to one another off Highway 138, it would be easy to combine a hike of Cowhorn with one to Tipsoo Peak for a full day of big view hiking.
BOOTS on the TRAIL 