Blue Grotto Oregon – BOOTS on the TRAIL

Benched at Lost Creek Lake (Oregon) 09-Jan-2022

2022-01-092022-01-22Posted in HikingTagged Blue Grotto Oregon, Day Hiking, Fawn Butte Oregon, Hiking, Lost Creek Lake Oregon, North Shore Trail Oregon, Southern Oregon1 Comment

The William L. Jess Dam impounds the Rogue River about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Shady Cove, Oregon. The resulting reservoir is called Lost Creek Lake – one whose waters rise and fall with the seasons. This is the low season and the waters are now surrounded by a magnificent ring of mud. A good trail circles the lake – part of which we’ve used repeatedly to visit the Blue Grotto on the lake’s north shore. But we’d never repeated our first hike at the lake – from Takelma Park to the Blue Grotto in 2016. Possibly because, due to a tiny navigation error on my part, it’s remembered as an epic 15 mile (24 km) slog, the mention of which still induces eye-rolls in The LovedOne. 🙄

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After the Deluge: Blue Grotto 27-Oct-2021

2021-10-272021-10-28Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Blue Grotto Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Lost Creek Lake Oregon, Rogue River, Southern Oregon4 Comments

And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

Well, the biblical-scale deluge seems to have targeted mainly California. We got what amounted to a passing glance. But still a very welcome glance given our drought and all. Enough wetness to maybe bring some of our smaller intermittent streams to life? Like the unnamed one that feeds the Blue Grotto on the shores of Lost Creek Lake? We try to visit the Grotto in the Spring when winter rains create the waterfall that is at its greenish-blue heart. Although we were there just this February, we thought: “Why not go see what the recent rains have done for it?” Even if it was still dry, the out-and-back hike to it on the North Shore Trail from the Lost Creek Trailhead is a very pleasant one and, at this time of year, one through Fall colors. 😊

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Lost Creek Lake (Southwest Oregon) 09-May-2021

2021-05-092021-05-10Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Blue Grotto Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Lewis Road Trailhead, Lost Creek Lake Oregon, Southern Oregon, Wildflowers2 Comments

Our friend Jennifer is a Southern Oregon native and her parents and brother still live in Medford. When she’s in town visiting them, and our schedules mesh, we try to do a hike with her. Today being Mother’s Day and all, there was just time for a short hike together in the morning. An out-and-back at Lost Creek Lake – between the Lewis Road Trailhead and the Blue Grotto – was deemed just the right length (4.5 miles / 7.2 km). The Grotto’s waterfall is now dry. This is, however, that fleeting moment in the annual water cycle when the reservoir is near full. For a couple of months, it will actually look like a lake, rather than like a mud-ringed bathtub (it’s now at 83% full and that may be as good as it gets this year). Plus there are some different wildflowers in bloom now. So we went out-and-back, enjoying views of the lake, catching-up on gossip, trying to identify odd wildflowers, and dodging (hopefully) the massive growths of poison oak bordering the trail. It was two hours well spent, with plenty of time remaining afterward for Mother’s Day festivities. 🙂

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Fawn Butte – Blue Grotto Loop (Southwest Oregon) 07-Feb-2021

2021-02-072021-10-29Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Blue Grotto Oregon, Crater Lake National Park, Day Hiking, Hiking, Lost Creek Lake Oregon, North Shore Trail Oregon, Southern Oregon, William L Jess Dam6 Comments

The Blue Grotto is a geologic feature just above of the North Shore Trail on the north side of Lost Creek Lake. It’s where a seasonal stream has cut a 40-foot (12 m) waterfall through a greenish rhyolite formation that is ash from the eruption of Mount Mazama, the volcano that created the Crater Lake caldera. The Grotto is at its best in the late winter to early Spring when runoff brings the waterfall to life. We figured that rain and snow melt from a big storm a week ago had by now found its way to the Grotto’s waterfall, so we set off on our annual visit. In previous years, we’d simply hike out-and-back on the North Shore Trail from the Lost Creek Trailhead, which is a lovely hike. Then I discovered an old road that runs past Fawn Butte, above and parallel to the North Shore Trail. This makes it possible to form a loop that includes views from the hills, a visit to the Blue Grotto, and a walk along the lake.

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Fawn Butte Loop II (Southern Oregon) 14-Oct-2020

2020-10-142020-10-15Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Blue Grotto Oregon, Day Hiking, Fawn Butte Oregon, Hiking, Lost Creek Lake Oregon, Rogue River, Rogue River Trail, Southern Oregon

Back in February, when “normal” was still normal, I constructed a loop hike around Fawn Butte on the north side of Lost Creek Lake. It proved to be a good hike that traverses a variety of habitats, all on an easy to follow old road. The LovedOne was gardening then and passed on joining me. But I wanted to show it to her and today was the day for that. The only difference was that this time we’d explore to the end of the old road, rather than go cross-country down to the Blue Grotto (which is bone dry this time of year).

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