Key Stats for the Skookum Lake Trail - 542
About
Trail is accessed by way of Thunder Mountain Trail 543 or Baty Butte Trail 545. A great trail and a great destination. The mileage on the FS info sheet is incorrect. The trail is approximately 1.65 miles in length (each way-round trip is about 3.3 miles).
When you come down from Thunder Mountain, below the rock field on the west side of the trail, you will arrive at a small meadow. Turn right here (east) to go to Skookum Lake. The location of the trail junction is shown on the topo map, and a waypoint is included in the GPS track. Heading west from here will take you on a long abandoned route to Baty Butte.
Skookum Lake is named with the Chinook jargon word which originally meant a strong or powerful deity, and later came to mean simply strong or stout. When used in connection with localities, the word skookum generally indicated a place inhabited by a skookum, or god of the woods. It sometimes meant a place used as a burial ground.1
Directions
Trail is only accessible from the Thunder Mountain Trail. Please see that page for directions.
1Oregon Geographic Names, McArthur, Lewis.
Map and Elevation Profile
Hiked this trail today – trail is very brushy in spots and had quite a few downed logs on it. Most were easy stepovers, but two sections were very messy. One is a tough crawl under (3 logs) and one right before the lake was a huge mess of blowdown – that one you can go around, however. Most of the downed logs were near the lake. Road to the trailhead is in very good shape due to thinning projects in the area.
Hiked this trail today – Trail has recently been logged out and is in good to excellent shape. There are a couple of brushy spots but they are short and easy to traverse – most of the trail is in GREAT shape. The trail down to the lake is a bit rougher although all the logs are cut out – a few areas are really brushy but relatively easy to get thru as long as you pay attention.
Hiked this trail 10/19/2024 – Portions along the hill coming down from Thunder Mountain were affected by the Sandstone fire, but they have been repaired. There were a few logs down, but nothing not easily stepped over. The only somewhat difficult areas are the brushy areas closer to the lake – if it has rained you will get wet in those areas due to the brush.