Three Fingered Jack rises above the trail at Canyon Creek Meadows Loop west of Camp Sherman.

My wife, Morgan, a lifelong Oregonian and adorable nature geek, has a nose for the best trails for wildflower viewing. For my part, as a lifelong Oregonian, I love a good nature flex on the ‘gram. So it was not at all against type for us to venture to the Canyon Creek Meadows, iPhone camera in tow, and hike among the flowers, just under Three Fingered Jack’s craggy spires.

About eight miles east of Santiam Pass, a turn on Jack Lake Road, a left on Forest Road 1230, and another (slighter) left on FR1234, the drive up to the trailhead is a test for your suspension but should be navigable for any factory-setting coupe or sedan (provided you watch for deep potholes and huge rocks). Our Toyota Tacoma had an easy time of it, even if our vertebrae tended to disagree.

The CCM loop can be anywhere from a half-mile visit to Jack Lake to a 7.5-mile hike through Canyon Creek Meadow and up to the viewpoint below Three Fingered Jack. Most will traverse the Lower Meadow and circle back to the parking lot.

Braver souls will burn glute and calf muscle fibers climbing the steep trail to the less-colorful-but-just-as-green Upper Meadow. Just about everyone will contend with hungry mosquitos and the occasional snow drift (at least they did in mid-July 2022).

We didn’t make it to the 6,500-foot-elevation viewpoint at the saddle, but we did pass upper meadow and amble along the crest of a scree-covered ridge that presides over a milky green Cirque Lake, formed by glaciers in the shadow of the spires. Our legs shook, perhaps from the view, but more likely from the effort to not slide down the rocky debris and find ourselves in need of a medivac at the bottom.

Because we turned back short of the viewpoint, I can only second-hand describe its breathtaking views of Mount Jefferson and all Three Sisters. But I didn’t miss the two lazy mountain goats admiring us from their perch in the shady shelter of a ledge, just below a rusty-red stratum overlooking the saddle and Cirque Lake. Morgan informed me (and the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife website confirmed) that they were reintroduced to the state after being eradicated in the 19th century. I told you she was a geek.

Oh, did I mention the flowers? Lower Meadow is famous for its lupine, red paintbrush and blooming bear grass. Much of the trail wound beside lush and green Canyon Creek, and we were in good company among its admirers. As two polite young gentlemen working for the U.S. Forest Service informed us, make sure to get your Central Cascades Wilderness permit before you arrive. Beauty like this no longer belongs to the spontaneous.

Directions: Twelve miles west of Sisters, turn right on Jack Lake Road. Continue on the paved road for a little over four miles. Turn left on Forest Road 1230 for 1½ miles until the pavement ends. Fork left onto gravel Forest Road 1234, climbing six miles on washboard gravel to the trailhead. A Northwest Forest Pass or $5 day pass is required for parking, and a Cascades Wilderness Permit is required for all trails.