Rocky Rim Trail #1572

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Features Commonly Backpacked · Fall Colors · Views · Wildflowers

This trail features a bird's-eye view of Fish Lake and traverses a ridge separating the Fish Lake Basin and the remote Castle Creek Drainage within Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness.

From the Beaver Swamp Trailhead, the trail climbs easily for 2.5 miles, through an area burned by the 2002 Tiller Complex Fire, to the base of the Palisades, an outcropping of volcanic rocks and spires. The trail through the burned area may be a little hard to follow in a few places, so keep an eye out for it. The #1572 climbs around the Palisades to the top of the cliffs, with Fish Lake visible far below.

At 3.5 miles from the trailhead, you pass a junction with the Rocky Ridge Trail #1571 and, shortly thereafter, reach Rocky Ridge, with its views of Fish Lake and remote Castle Creek, as well as distant views of Mounts Thielsen and Bailey.

The trail continues south along the narrow, open, rocky ridge for a short distance, and enters trees and sub-alpine meadows, before emerging (at 4.6 miles from the trailhead) into the open again for a narrow, rocky traverse below the impressive volcanic spires that form Standoff Point. These are some of the tallest volcanic spires in this wilderness.

After passing beneath Standoff Point, the #1572 goes back into the forest for an easy, almost level, journey to its end at a junction with the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Trail #1470.