Lava Ridge

Trail Overview

This is a 7.6-mile segment of the Lava Ridge Single Track from the Big Dave Trailhead to the Hershey Point Lookout Tower. It's a really incredible ride, with amazing views in a really unique landscape, fun challenges, and ends at a manned fire watch tower. A lot of sections are relatively smooth, with some rutted and rooted sections. As you progress north, the trail quickly lives up to its name with areas of lava rock, leading to a beautiful ridgeline offering views of the surrounding valley and mountains. Riders should be on the lookout for a weathered 4x4 post marker that signifies where the trail turns to drop down the ridge. Before dropping down, you can go a bit farther north to check out an incredible viewpoint over Lava Butte Lakes. The difficulty increases substantially after this point with highly exposed narrow areas of side-hilling, tricky rock sections, and small stream crossings. The last half-mile climb to the Hershey Point watchtower is particularly rocky with jagged lava rock and tight switchbacks, making it one of the more challenging parts of the trail. The view from the top is worth the climb though. This is an incredible ride in the fall too, as the hillsides become covered in red and orange bushes.

Photos of Lava Ridge

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Difficulty

This trail is rated a 7 in difficulty because it's a good mix of harder sections that will challenge even experienced riders, along with some smoother easy flowy sections to provide a nice break between the challenging ones. The varied terrain, technical sections, high exposure, and relatively long length contribute to the trail's high difficulty rating.

History

The current Hershey Point lookout tower was built in 1966 and is staffed in the summer. The original cabin at this location was built in 1932.

Technical Rating