Before the road opened to cars, Derek and I took advantage of the solitude and rode our bikes out East Rim to the Pinnacles. Our ride was 28.4 miles with 3438’ of climbing.
You can park at Steel Visitor Center which is very close to the intersection with East Rim Drive. The visitor center is closed for renovations but you can still park there. The ride out East Rim Drive towards Grayback Road climbs gently for the first couple miles and around mile three you get to Vidae Falls. This is impressive in early season when we rode but I imagine it diminishes as the summer goes. We climbed some more until we got to the crest where views of Crater Peak and the Klamath Basin open up.
Next up is a descent to Phantom Ship Overlook. Actually, we stopped just before the junction with Grayback Road and scrambled up a bank to see the lake below. It never gets old gazing at this majestic lake. Back on the bike we hung a right on Grayback Road and descended all the way to Pinnacles. This road is pretty narrow so I was happy to not have to share the road with cars.
Pinnacles are a group of volcanic pumice spires, colored various shades of grey and brown, formed by erosion along the south edge of the steep-sided canyon of Wheeler Creek. Mount Scott is photobombing in the background. We’ll hike that some day soon.
The final eruption of Mount Mazama blew volcanic material miles into the air. This was followed by the ejection of gas-charged matter through vents in fractures around the mountain which weakened and ultimately caused the upper mountain to collapse. Rather than rising upwards, the volcanic matter ejected through vents and flowed rapidly downhill, filling surrounding valleys to a depth of 30 ft (100 m). Once the flows stopped, trapped gases escaped through fumeroles, and the surrounding material hardened. As the streams reclaimed the valley the erosion-resistant spires were exposed.
We rode past the pinnacles on the trail that goes all the way through to the old historic East Entrance. This meets up with the dirt/gravel road we tried to ride up back in May but got turned back due to snow. So, there is a backway to get up here.
Back on the bikes we made the climb up and out to East Rim. This is the longest climb of the ride at around 8.5 miles and 1919’ of climbing but it goes fast because the surroundings are so awesome. The rest of the ride is a lot of downhill though there are sneaky climbs here and there.
Five Stars!
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