Crater Lake National Park: Castle Crest Wildflower Trail
Castle Crest Wildflower Trail in Crater Lake National Park is a short wildflower-saturated hike that is great for the whole family! There are two different versions. You can park by the trailhead and hike a 0.4-mile loop, or you can park by the NPS park headquarters and extend the trail into a 1-mile round-trip. Regardless of what you decide, you will not be disappointed.
- Trail Name: Castle Crest Wildflower Trail
- Trailhead Location: Castle Crest Parking or Park Headquarters
- Distance: 0.4 or 1 Mile Roundtrip
- Difficulty: Easy
- Elevation Gain: Minimal
- Type: Loop
- Features: Wildflowers
- Dogs: No
Hiking the Castle Crest Wildflower Trail
My wife and I arrived at the trail mid-morning on an already hot early summer day. We parked at the park headquarters and visitor center. After a quick drink of water, we headed down the trail.
When leaving the headquarters parking lot, it’s a lollipop loop. The first part of the trail was forested, shaded, and a slight descent. Soon, it opened into a small meadow area dotted with brilliant red wildflowers on one side of the trail and beautiful purple lupine on the other.
Then, we arrived at the Castle Crest Wildflower Loop. After crossing a small footbridge over a small stream, we were almost immediately engulfed in an incredible display of wildflowers. The trail circles a meadow or “garden” bursting with wildflowers.
Tens of Thousands of Wildflowers
The meadow is a perfect habitat for the flowers. Five springs create moist conditions within the meadow, which support out-of-this-world displays.
We did not have a wildflower book on us, but it just so happened that my wife had bought a hat with about ten different types of Crater Lake wildflowers identified on it. Laughingly, we used the hat to identify nine of the ten on the hat—Lewis’s Monkeyflowers, bleedinghearts, paintbrush, lupine and many more.
We spent about a half hour looping through the wildflowers. I recommend making sure you have bug spray. I forgot to put it on before I left the car. I easily got a couple dozen bites. They were thick!
The total mile-long hike took us a little over 45 minutes, but again, we stopped often so I could take many unnecessary wildflower photos!
Heads up, there are no views of Crater Lake along this trail. However, if you drive a few miles up the park road, you will get to the view above in less than ten minutes.
