South Sister Mountain is the third tallest mountain in the state of Oregon. Its summit is 10358 feet above the sea level. South Sister Mountain is located in central Oregon, about 30 minutes East of Bend. The summit trail to South Sister is rather doable without any professional gears and thus it is one of the most popular summit trail among hikers. The trail to the summit is about 6.5 miles long with almost 5000 feet of elevation gain. Since we have done this hike before in the day light, this time we are going to do a night hike to South Sister summit.
We left Portland around 4:30PM in the afternoon and got to South Sister trail head at Devil's Lake around 9:30PM. We stopped in between to get some dinner. By the time we got to the trail head, the sky was already getting dark. We had to put on our head light after we parked our car. One thing to note is that Northwest Pass is valid here. If you don't have Northwest pass, the parking fee is $5 to be paid in the envelop. Some people simply park along the highway so that they don't have to pay and also closer to the trail.
Since it was so dark, we had some difficulty getting on the correct trail. Initially we got on to the Moraine Lake trail, which we thought was right. But after checking on the map that is on the board, we realized that this trail is a bit further than we need to go. Thus we went back and went a bit further in the parking lot to find the correct trail.
We started the hike around 10:30PM. We crossed the highway and entered the first park of trail in the forest. The first park of the trail in the forest is about 1.5 miles long. It was pitch dark in the forest and star light could not shine through. It was a moonless night as well since moon would rise during the day and moon would set at the end of the day. We had our head light up and also used a flash light along the way. On the way through the forest, we also ran into few other groups of night hikers. The other hikers planned to camp at Morain Lake first before going to the summit.
After about 40 minutes, we went past the forest and got to the open ground. The stars shone upon us. It was a beautiful night and we could see the milky way clearly in the sky. It was such a leisure to hike in such a night in the mountain. We felt so relieved.
We continued to ascent and hike further along the trail and saw a camp with camp fire. This should not be allowed since fire at this place is quite dangerous.
As we continue to hike, the trail was getting harder and harder to recognize even with our head light on. We had to look for tracks on the ground to find the correct trail. Then eventually we lost track of the trail as we tried to climb over the ridge to Tear Drop Lake. We went on the wrong path and hiked towards the wrong direction on the ridge. We soon recognized that we were not on the correct path. Luckily, we traversed back to where we were and found the correct trail and finally got to the top of the ridge that overlooks Tear Drop Lake. On the ridge, we could see everything behind us and saw blinks of head light from the groups of hikers behind us.
From Tear Drop Lake to the summit is the final part of the trail. This final park of the trail was the hardest part. The air was getting thin and the elevation gain was crazy here. After an hour, we finally reached the top of the summit overlooking the crater and the North Sister.
The time is 3:00AM in the morning when we were at the top. It was still 2.5 hours away from sun rise and the wind was blowing extremely hard. It was freezing cold at the top due to the wind and we were trying to find cover to dodge the wind. We put on extra layers of clothes but still felt the chill to our bones. South Sister summit has shelters that are made out of lava rocks, but it was not good enough to protect us from the harsh wind. We were shivering and felt like we were going to go into the coma. We did not prepare for such harsh wind. We eventually went down to the crater where the wind could not get to us because the crater was like a bowl and wind blew over the crater on the top.
Then the time finally arrived. We started to see the twilight in the sky and were just waiting for the sun rise. We climbed to the very top to wait for the sun to come up. As we waited, more and more people got to the summit and the moment was totally worth the night hike. The scene was unbelievable. We could see the sun rising from the horizon and shone upon the mountains. We loved it so much. The view on the South side over the Cascade Lake was also so amazing.
After enjoying the view for an hour, we headed back down the trail at around 6:30AM. Walking down the trail was also harsh. There was a lot of scree on the trail which was quite slippery. Our body was also very tired since we have not slept for over 24 hours. We finally got down and got back to the car around 9:30 and it was such a relieve.
Overall, this night hike was totally worth it. We recommend to have a perfect understanding of the trail when doing the night hike in case of getting lost. Most importantly, also bring enough clothing and prepare for the harsh wind.
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