Fabulous Cascade Views Await Those Who Climb the Cones

We climbed Four in One Cone for the first time in the middle of October, 2021. A moderate in and out hike with just over 1400 feet of elevation gain in 9 miles from the Scott Trailhead in the Three Sisters Wilderness, we looked forward to revisiting the area during the summer.  The early spring snow we had in 2022 delayed access to the higher reaches of the Cascades with patches of snow evident above 6200 feet. But the trip up to the cones was fairly straight forward with little snow along the trail. Mosquitos were the worst thing we had to deal with - along with over 30 fallen trees to get around or over. But once we reached the lava flows, the mosquitos mostly disappeared and our hike to the top of the cones was great. The views of North and Middle Sister, along with Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Jefferson, Black Crater and Belknap Crater are outstanding from the top of the cones.

Four in One Cone has this name due to the fact there are four distinct cinder cones adjacent to each other which all erupted at different times, but which create the unique geological feature it is.  The path at the top of the first cone traverses all the cones at the ridge line; it is roughly .4 miles to reach the end of the fourth cone and the drop off on each side of the path varies in steepness.  When we first hiked to the top of the cones in October, the wind made us a little uncertain and we did not reach the far cone. This summer hike had much less wind and we made it to the furthest point. 

After enjoying the views, we climbed back down the cones and decided to continue the hike to the junction of the Pacific Crest Trail, which was another mile past the cones. There is a large meadow at this junction and we were hoping to see wildflowers along with the view of North Sister. The wildflowers were sparse, but the view of North Sister was spectacular. 

Our return trip was much easier than the hike up due to the volunteer efforts of six amazing people who were clearing all the fallen trees from the path. These six plus one more hiking party of three, and one person we saw hiking the PCT were the only people we saw during the entire hike. Amazing solitude and a wonderful day.