Group members: Larry Wallace, Mike Casey and Rod Jacobson
Route Choice #1: Approx 7 total miles. Start at Paulina Lake Lodge, hike to Paulina Peak Summit and back.
Route Choice #2: Approx 13.5 total miles. Start at the “10 Mile Snow Park”, hike past Paulina Lake Lodge to Paulina Peak Summit and back.
Note: We highly recommend Route Choice #1 as an easy/moderate one day hike on a nice winter day, especially for those new to winter hiking/climbing.
Access: from Bend, 23.5 miles south on highway 97. 12.6 miles east on Rd #21.
This hike to Paulina Peak was not an official Cascades Mountaineers trip, but rather a last minute “what are you doing tomorrow?” get together.
None of us had any experience with this hike and did not know what to expect. So, of course, we over packed and over planned. Crampons & ice axes stayed in the pack.
Route Choice #1 is a simple 7 mile, 1650' roundtrip hike (not a climb) on a snowmobile road from Paulina Lake Lodge up the Newberry Volcano to the Paulina Peak summit at 7,984 ft. The Newberry Volcano is a shield volcano 20 miles in diameter with a large oval shaped caldera (Newberry Caldera) where you will find both Paulina Lake & East Lake. This volcano is BIG, and was once as high as Mt Hood at 11,000+ ft. You may not like this hike in the summer since you could be sharing the road with cars – although mountain biking up to the summit is popular. We think the winter time is the best time to experience this summit hike, and we were surprised to see very few snowmobiles, even though we were there on a beautiful Sunday.
Route Choice #2 starts at the “10 Mile Snow Park” off Rd #21. Rd #21 is the only paved road to Paulina Lake Lodge. Rd #21 is not cleared of snow past the “10 Mile Snow Park” during the winter. This creates an additional 3.5 miles or 3.0 miles (each way, depending on route taken) to the start of Route Choice #1. Cover this distance via snowmobile (recommended) or by hiking. Our snowmobile arraignments fell thru 30 minutes before departure, so we hiked these 3.5 (one way) miles on the snowmobile road up to the Lodge. Rod & Mike used snowshoes and Larry hiked without his snowshoes since the road was so well packed by snowmobiles. Additionally, there is a cross country ski trail to the Lodge, which is probably a lot more scenic & quiet, but would have added too much time to our trip. Once we reached the Lodge, we stopped to view the partially frozen Paulina Falls (see photo) before lunching at the Lodge (one more reason this is a good starter hike). After lunch, it was 3.5 more miles up the packed snowmobile trail – none of it steep. The first 1.5 miles of these 3.5 miles was in the trees, but pretty. The next 2 miles offered good views of the Cascades and surroundings. We took a 'short-cut' the final half mile to the peak, just to get off the road.
The peak offered great views of:
We returned via the road all the way back to the Lodge. From there, we took a shorter (3.0 miles) & more direct route (straight shot under the power lines, N. of Rd #21) back to the snow park. Our total mileage was about 13.5, and it took about 8.3 hours with detours to Paulina Falls and the Lodge for lunch.
If you use a snowmobile to cover the 3.5 miles both directions of Rd #21 that is snowed in, you eliminate 7 total miles of hiking which would make the hike from the Lodge to the summit an easy/moderate hike of 7 total miles. This has to be one of the easiest non-motorized ways to summit a significant Cascade volcano. We had a great time and think you will too.
