Rock Creek and Spanish Peak
Moderate (Rock Creek to Fir Tree Creek)
7.6 miles round trip
620 feet elevation loss
Open late May to mid-November
Use: hikers, horses, bicycles
Moderate (to rim cairn and Spanish Peak)
7.9-mile loop
1000 feet elevation gain
Open early June to mid-November
A trail on the crest of the Ochoco Mountains connects the views and wildflowers at Spanish Peak with a historic mining ditch along forested Rock Creek. For a day hike, try either end of this trail system. If you have a shuttle car, you can hike the entire route one way, mostly downhill.
Drive Highway 26 east of Prineville …
The trail that starts here ambles across a meadow of blue lupine and scattered pines, descends 0.4 mile to a footbridge across 15-foot-wide Rock Creek, and then follows the creek down through lovely meadows and stands of lodgepole pine.
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Drive east on gravel Road . . .
This chapter is an excerpt from 100 Hikes: Eastern Oregon