View from inside the Green Ridge Lookout

My family takes a trip to Black Butte Ranch every summer, and my brother and I have both been taking the same two childhood friends along with us for a number of years, going back to my freshman year of high school. One thing that we do a lot of while we are there in Central Oregon is bike ride. The Green Ridge trail is one that we make sure to ride each year. The trail follows the entirety of Green Ridge, which is a land feature that starts just northeast of the Black Butte mountain and goes north for over ten miles. 

A view of Mount Jefferson from the bike ride there

Picture of the trail on the way there

The initial climb of getting atop the ridge from the trailhead is a challenging one, but once up there, it’s a pretty nice ride to the fire watch lookout tower, which is our destination.

A fire watch’s truck parked outside of the lookout tower while we were there

The lookout tower is about 6 miles up the ridge from the southern trailhead. It’s cool because it’s an active lookout tower and there will often be a lookout in the tower when we show up on our bikes. While the lookout will reside in the upper cabin shown in the photo, casual visitors as ourselves are allowed to enjoy the views from the lower deck, where we’ll eat lunch that we packed with us before biking back to the southern trailhead where my parents will be waiting to pick us up. The downhill stretch on the way back (that we had to climb up on the way there) is exhilarating, and it’s what I look forward to every time. 

My friend chilling

One year when it was super smoky – you can barely see Mount Jefferson in the background (that’s my younger brother on the left)

Once we arrive after the treacherous ride, we tend to just chill out and post up for a little while before heading out on the ride back to the southern trailhead. It’s extremely serene and peaceful. 

View of South & North Sisters (on the left) and Mount Washington (on the right) from the lower deck of the lookout tower

View of Mount Jefferson from the lower deck of the lookout tower

View of the lookout tower