- Oregon County HP: #3
- Difficulty: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (on a scale of 5)
- Summit Elevation: 7,048 feet
- Mountain Range: Klamath Mountains
- Ancestral Lands: Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla, Takelma, Cow Creek Umpqua, Modoc, Tolowa Dee-ni, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and Confederated Tribes of the Siletz
Planning details
Location: Grayback Mountain is located in Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest approximately 33 miles south of Grants Pass.
When to Visit: Summer and Fall. Due to its higher elevation, Grayback Mountain often has snow on its summit until early June. If you choose to ascend in the late spring (like I did), I strongly recommend bringing microspikes and trekking poles for the snow.
Fees/Permits Required: None.
Getting There: Grayback Mountain is most easily approached from the O’Brien Creek Trail (#900) on the peak’s eastern side. There are two trailheads serving the trail from this direction, the Lower O’Brien Creek TH and the Upper O’Brien Creek TH.
Directions from Grants Pass:
- From Interstate-5 (exit 55), head west on US-199/Grants Pass Highway for 2.3 miles.
- Make a left onto OR-238 East (toward Murphy & Jacksonville) and continue for 18 miles.
- Immediately before the town of Applegate, you will reach mile post 18 and the green metal bridge that crosses the Applegate River. Turn right onto Thompson Creek Road just before you reach this bridge.
- Drive south on Thompson Creek Road for the next 12 miles. This road is a two lane, paved road for the first 9.5 miles, then it transitions to a single lane, paved road.
- At mile 12, county maintenance ends on Thompson Creek Road and it becomes a dirt road at an intersection with two forest service roads — NF-1005 and NF-1020. Turn right onto NF-1005 (the first of the two dirt forest roads).
- The O’Brien Creek Lower TH sits 2.2 miles up NF-1005. Once you reach this trailhead, you will see a metal sign indicating that the O’Brien Creek Upper TH is 1.1 miles further up NF-1005. As a general rule, the road to the upper trailhead is only suitable for high clearance vehicles or 4WD. It is very narrow, with few places to turn your vehicle around around if discover that it is impassible.
Parking: There is enough space for 3-4 vehicles at each trailhead. There are no services (pit toilets, potable water, or trash cans), so make sure to plan accordingly.
Pets Allowed: Yes. However, summiting this high point requires a combination of off-trail bushwhacking, steep climbs, and higher elevation, which many dogs will not tolerate well.
Kid Friendly: This hike is not suitable for children under the age of 10. The ascent is rated as very steep in places (20-40%) and there are several stretches of narrow trail and high drop-offs above the creek.
Distance: Varies greatly depending which off-trail route you use bushwhacking to the summit. The shortest possible distance from the Upper O’Brien Creek Trailhead is 4.6 miles (roundtrip) and from the Lower O’Brien Creek Trailhead is 6.6 miles (roundtrip).
The Summit: The top of Grayback Mountain is marked with a geodetic survey monument embedded in one of the large boulders on the summit’s ridge. There is also a small military ammo can nestled in the rocks containing a summit register.
TRIP SUMMARY
Date Visited: May 29, 2023
Route Used: O’Brien Creek Trail (#900) to the Boundary Trail (#1207), then an off-trail route through the snow to the summit – roughly 6.4 miles (round-trip)
Grayback Mountain was the second Oregon county high point I attempted this month. I’d been turned back on Marys Peak (Benton County’s HP) a few weeks earlier due to several feet of snow blocking the road up to the summit. So, I’d really been somewhat on the fence about whether to even attempt this 7,000 foot high point in southern Oregon over Memorial Day weekend.
After a bunch of hemming and hawing, I pressed ahead with my plans, but made sure to pack my microspikes, trekking poles, a warm hat, gloves, and down jacket just in case I saw snow on the ascent. In the end, those microspikes were what made the difference between failure and success!
Like most highpointers before me, I’d decided to ascent Grayback Mountain via the shortest route. This meant I was approaching from the east using the O’Brien Creek Trail as opposed to the Grayback Mountain trail to the mountain’s north.
The drive to the trailhead was uneventful. It was an easy shot down I-5 to Grants Pass, then another 45 minutes on paved roads. I lost cell service near the small town Applegate about 15 miles before the trailhead, so I’m glad I wrote the directions down beforehand.
My drive departed the pavement at the end of Thompson Creek Road when I reached the junction with NF-1005. It was only a short (2.2 mile drive down this dirt forest road to the Lower O’Brien Creek trailhead and the road was even in fairly good condition allowing my to drive 15-20 mph down it. Eventually, I arrived at small grassy picnic spot area that passes as the parking area for lower trailhead, but there wasn’t a soul around on this holiday weekend, not even a parked car.
This is probably where I should have parked for the day and begun hiking up the shady trail that paralleled O’Brien Creek. But I decided to push my luck a bit further. A sign for the upper trailhead sat nearby, and the single lane, dirt road heading up looked almost as good as the one I’d just driven down. So shifted my RAV-4 into gear and started uphill in an effort to shave a little distance and elevation off my upcoming hike.
As it turns out, the dirt road became considerably more narrow just around the bend, with tree branches closing in and a sharp drop-off on one side of the road. There were very few places to turn around if (or when) the increasingly rutted road became impassible. I was barely moving at 5 mph and had to stop twice to move branches and debris out of the road before I got to some uncomfortably deep potholes in the road. This was the obstacle that forced me to consider whether I was pressing my luck driving to the upper trailhead.
I was only maybe one-third of a mile up the road after 10 minutes of driving, and the conditions seemed to be getting worse. If I continued on, this might not turn out well. I’d be stuck backing down the road in reverse while trying to avoid the sharp drop-off on the left side of the car.
And so, at the next possible spot that was wide enough to turn around, I parked my car and grabbed my hiking gear. I’d much rather walk the rest of the way up the dirt road to the trailhead than waste more time on this road. There was no cell service here and it just didn’t seem worth the risk nor the time I was wasting.
I seriously doubt my walk to the upper trailhead was even a fraction as scenic as the actual trail running along O’Brien Creek. I could hear the water roaring off to my left and wished I’d just parked at the lower trailhead instead.
After 20 minutes of trodding uphill, I reached the upper trailhead where a 4×4 pickup truck was parked in front of me. Clearly the road was passible if you had high enough clearance and weren’t worried about branches scraping up your paint job! And now I knew there might be someone else out here today after all.
The first 0.8-mile on O’Brien Trail woke me up immediately! The path shot up at an 15-20% grade that sent my heart pumping and had my calves burning as I hiked uphill through the pine forest. But at least the trail itself was well-maintained with smooth tread covered with pine needles.
This time of year, there was ample water nearby thanks to creek to my left and the water occasionally running down the trail, presumably from snowmelt somewhere above me. The bugs weren’t a bother and I found myself truly enjoying myself on this warm May day.
After crossing a small waterfall and just barely keeping my feet dry, I made it to a sign telling hikers to make a sharp right turn for the Boundary Trail. This was where the patchy snow began along as I began the final 1.2 miles uphill on the O’Brien Creek Trail.
The grade leveled out after this sign, thanks to the long switchbacks taking me up to the Boundary Trail. But now I had a new obstacle to contend with — namely, lots and lots of downed trees. This was definitely one of the downsides to doing an early season hike. Nobody had done any trail maintenance in at least 8 months, and the winter and spring storms had left some major damage behind to slow me down!
I spotted a bike padlocked to one of the trees beside the trail and casually wondered if it belonged to the person parked at the upper trailhead. I still hadn’t seen a soul out here hiking, but maybe there was someone just ahead of me.
After climbing over and under at least a dozen mini obstacle courses (and going off-trail around several more), I finally made it up to the junction with the Boundary Trail where I took in the views and prepared for the real fun that was yet to come… the bushwhack to the summit.
There’s no trail leading to Grayback Mountain’s summit, so I knew getting there would be an uphill “choose-your-own-adventure” bushwhack through the trees on the slopes above me. I’d reviewed about a dozen trip reports from other highpointers as I prepared for this trip, and it seemed that most people took one of two approaches to the top:
- Direct Route. The shortest route to the Grayback Mountain’s summit was to head directly uphill in a westerly direction for 0.4 mile. However, this endeavor would require ascending a very sharp slope (35-40% grade), which might be too steep to manage while hiking off-trail on this terrain.
- Windy Gap. The more common alternate requires hiking another 1.1 miles north on the Boundary Trail to Windy Gap – the saddle located between Grayback Mountain and Big Sugarloaf Peak. From here, hikers can bushwhack off-trail for about 0.6 miles to the summit in a southernly direction. This slope is more gentle than the direct approach, but it would include one false summit and navigating some class II terrain/talus.
I planned to use the ‘Windy Gap approach’ as there was still lots of snow above me. I had no interest in trudging through that mess, and certainly not on such a steep uphill grade. It didn’t matter that Windy Gap was longer. It would be gentler, and perhaps, less dangerous.
Unfortunately, the Boundary Trail’s current conditions were didn’t make for easy progress. I barely made it a quarter mile up the trail when I started having second thoughts.
The trail was covered with large patches of icy snow making the route difficult to find. Plus, there seemed to be even more downed trees ahead than what I’d navigated in the prior mile of the O’Brien Creek Trail. Hiking to Windy Gap this time of year looked like it was going to be just as slow and tedious as heading directly uphill in the snow. So I decided changed course and attempt the ‘direct approach’ instead.
After pulling my microspikes on over my trail runners, I crossed my fingers and hope the snowpack was still firm. It was evident from the rings of melted snow at the base of the trees that the snow was only 18-36 inches deep here. But I didn’t want crash directly through the snow and posthole up this insane grade.
Soon I was emerging from the trees and climbing a bare slope that angled up toward the sky. Rippled sun cups coated the snow as far as I could see. And each time I thought I’d spotted the crest above me, another white slope appeared even higher up.
I was making short switchbacks back and forth to ascend what was now a 35-40% slope. My microspikes were still doing a fair job of gripping the snow, but I wasn’t fully comfortable with the situation. I now had what looked like a ski slope below me without any way to self-arrest if I started sliding downhill.
Why hadn’t I brought my ice axe? I wondered to myself. And how exactly was I going to descend this ridiculous slope without tumbling down like a snowball?
The higher up I went, the more I worried about the open slope looming below me. And so, in an effort to protect myself from a terrifying fall, I worked my way to the right side of the snow field where there were some trees to keep me from sliding down into oblivion before I could stop the momentum.
The presence of the trees wasn’t 100% comforting when I made it to their purported safety though. That’s because I could now see how deep the snowpack was. Each tree seemed to have a 6- to 10-foot deep pit of partially melted snow surrounding its trunk. Wouldn’t plunging into one of those voids and potentially hitting my head on a tree trunk be just as hazardous as sliding to the bottom of the slope in an uncontrolled fall?
I slowly continued climbing uphill, making my from one cluster of trees to the next one above me and eternally grateful that my microspikes were still doing their job. I might make it to the top intact, after all!
After what felt like an eternity, I spied the rocky outcropping of boulders across Grayback Mountain’s spine. The summit was within sight!! I was almost there.
My deliberate shift over to the trees meant I was a fair bit north of the highest point on the summit when I got to the rocky crest. But at least I could take my micropikes off now and just scramble the rest of the way to my destination on the dry boulders.
It was noticeably colder now that I could feel the air moving from every direction. I’d ascended nearly 3,000 feet in the past 3.1 miles, and my sweaty shirt was clinging to my skin and giving me a chill. Meanwhile, thick clouds rolled across the sky seeming to nudge me to hurry up and find what I was looking for before the weather shifted on me.
I spotted two rock cairns perched in the vicinity of the summit’s highest point and worked made my way to them. Once there, I found the survey monument firmly mounted atop one of the boulders. Woohooo! I’d reached to top of Josephine County!
Snow dusted peaks sat off to my west, while green tree-covered mountains rolled along the horizon to my east with Mt. McLoughlin and the Cascades in the distance. I had no doubt I could see into California now too, as the border was barely more than seven miles to the south.
After a few photos on the summit, I reached down for the olive green Army ammo can nestled in the rocks near the survey marker. A trail register sat inside, and I flipped though the notebook’s pages eagerly looking for the last entry. I found one from October 1, 2022, showing the final ascent from last season.
Immediately below that entry, there was another one with today’s date! I’d just missed being the first ascent of 2023! The other person noted that he’d ridden an e-bike partially up and he’d carried a pair of skis the rest of the way to the summit so he could use them for his descent. Well, I guess that answered the mystery about the bike I spotted chained to that tree down below!
I signed my name at the bottom of the page before scarfing down my lunch, and then I was off to scout out the best route back down to the Boundary Trail.
If I’d had an ice axe to slow myself down, I might have considered glissading down the open slope and enjoying the thrilling ride. But that wasn’t in the cards today. I needed to find somewhere where my microspikes would grip the snow instead.
In the end, I settled on scrambling back across the ridgeline toward a saddle with a small unnamedpeak to the north. The grade seemed gentler there and lots of trees were still clinging to the slope. This route turned out to be a much wiser choice than descending down the open snow field and I made good time on my descent.
I returned to the Boundary Trail without any issues, then set off hiking back through the obstacle course of downed trees. It was a lovely spring afternoon, and I was now one peak closer to my goal of reaching the highest point in every county in Oregon.
Bonus Material
Alternate Routes:
- Grayback Mountain Trail. This route approaches from the north of Grayback Mountain and begins at the Grayback Mountain TH near Williams, OR. It is less popular with highpointers and day hikers because of its length (18 miles long round-trip). To get to the summit, follow the Grayback Mountain trail for 8 miles until it meets the Boundary Trail (#1207) at Windy Gap. From there, hike uphill (off-trail) south toward the summit.
- Oregon Caves. This route approaches from west of Grayback Mountain via Oregon Caves National Monument. Hikers can begin at the Elk Creek TH, Mt. Elijah/Bigelow Lakes TH, or the monument’s headquarters. Using any of those local trails, hike east until you reach Boundary Trail (#1207), then head north toward Cold Spring. The junction with the O’Brien Trail (#900) is 0.2 miles further down the trail past Cold Spring. From there, approach the summit just as if taking the standard O’Brien Trail route.
Camping nearby:
- Valley of the Rogue Campground is located just off I-5 (exit 45) between Grants Pass and Medford and it offers 150 campsites (92 with full hook-ups) and 13 yurts. This State Park campground is open year-round, and it has flush toilets, showers, electric hook-ups, and potable water, plus picnic tables and fire rings at each campsite. Cost: $28-30 per campsite (reservations required).
- Cave Creek Campground is located at Oregon Caves National Monument and offers 17 sites on a first-come, first-served basis. This National Park campground is open from Memorial Day until Labor Day, and it has 3 compostable toilets, picnic tables and fire rings. Water is limited and all food must be stored inside a bear-resistant container or vehicle. Cost: $10 per night.
- Grayback Campground is located near Oregon Caves National Monument and offers 39 tent sites. This USFS campground is open from spring to fall, and had vault toilets, potable water, plus picnic tables and fire rings at each campsite. Cost: $10 per campsite; $5 for each additional vehicle.
Resources:
- Highpointing Grayback Mountain (Peakbagger)
- Grayback Mountain (BLM brochure)
- O’Brien Creek Trail (#900) (The Hiking Project)
- Grayback Mountain Trip Report (Boots on the Trail)
