Meadow Trail

Meadow Trail

As you see here Meadow trail is just the beginning of a series of trails that interlink with each other. To reach those other trail you don't have to start here. You can continue down Cascade Lakes Highway past the Widgi Creek golf course and Seventh Mountain Resort and turn left on FS 41, part of this road will be gravel. This gives access to all the trails below with Benham Falls at the end. Benham Falls can be reached by going down HWY 97, there is a gravel road at Lava Lands that goes to Benham Falls.

Meadow Trail starts out rocky and dry with just the river to the left. Then it goes down to the the wetlands filled with dragonflies, fish, birds and other wildlife. 

Below is a heron. He is flying away from me and I was not able to get a better shot.

During the spring it looks more like this.

After leaving the wetlands there are impressive rock formations on the right side of the trail. Near the end of the trail is a cave that was used by Native Americans.

These signs are placed all along the trail and give information about the cave, how the lava was formed and other historical info. If you are going to hike with someone that likes to stop and read every sign. Let them read this instead so they don't slow you down. Clicking on the pictures should make enlarge.

The video below is actually two videos taken at different times. One on April 4, 2013 for the first part then when it reaches the pond it switches to the one done on July 3, 2013 to show the contrast of spring vs summer. The rest of the trail especially at the beginning shows little change during the season because its mostly rock and evergreen plants.