Jerry Lakes & Crater Peak

We left from the Canyon Creek Trailhead around 10 a.m. We took our shoes off to make crossing over Canyon Creek in the cold water. The crossing was not treacherous at all given how late in the season it was. We easily found the trail on the other side and started making our way up the numerous switchbacks until we hit the unmarked junction to the small lake below Crater Peak. We took a short break at the lake to eat a snack and refill water. Upon leaving the lake the trail had some thick sections that were not necessary hard to walk through, but were all covered in water and dew from the precipiataion in the last few days so we put on our rain gear as not to get too soaked. Higher up on the Crater Peak trail the trees were covered in snow and the view towards Primus, Snowfield and Eldorado were awesome. We left the Crater Peak trail around 7,200′ and started contouring towards the notch between Crater Mountain and Crater Mountain East Peak on somewhat loose talus that eventually eased out into nice walking.

At the notch, we got our first view of the freshly snow coated Jack Mountain and knew our ambitions to climb Jack tomorrow may be unreasonable. The terrain between the notch and 6,600′ shoulder above Jerry Lakes was snow covered talus which made for somewhat slow going. Once we made it to the shoulder above Jerry Lakes the views were beautiful with Jack Mountain and Jerry Lakes, especially because the larches were just beginning to change.

We dropped into Jerry Lakes heading straight down from the shoulder and finding intermittent use trails that took us to a nice flat spot in a grassy patch between the two larger Jerry Lakes. The sun was setting quickly, the cold was coming and Jeff was feeling worse and worse so we made dinner and headed to bed. It took us about 6.5 hours to make it to Jerry Lakes from the trailhead.

We woke up to a frost covered landscape in the morning and Jeff was feeling much worse, so we decided to hike out. The way back to the notch between Crater Peak and Crater Peak East felt a bit more straightforward this time as we stayed a bit lower than the day before and travelled on the granite slabs around the knob at 6,800′ eventually following our snowy footsteps up the notch. Then, we contoured around 7,150′ back to the Crater Peak trail. Here we took a break and enjoyed the sunshine. We decided to drop our packs and follow the trail up to the Crater Peak summit as neither of us had ever been up there. The trail had cairns marking the way to the scramble section and then there were spray painter yellow arrows on the rock that marked the route. The scramble portion of the trail was Class 2/3 with some exposure towards the top. Overall very cool scramble.

We made it to the summit and enjoyed the views towards Jack Mountain, Snowfield and the Eldorado area. Then, we scrambled back down, grabbed our packs and followed the trail back to Crater Lake. It was an uneventful hike down all the switchbacks to the trailhead. Such a beautiful time to be out there and it really felt like Fall was on it’s way.