Garfield Peak Trail

Garfield Peak trail is one of the most popular trail located within Crater Lake National Park. The trail is only 3.4 miles roundtrip and the trailhead is right beside Crater Lake Lodge. Thus the trial itself is very accessible to visitors. The trail has some elevation gains but not difficult. However, for some reason, the trail is marked as strenuous. Most people do this hike in the early morning to see the beautiful sun rise over Crater Lake.


We woke up early in the morning around 6AM to do this trail. The early morning air was chill but was not as cold as we thought. As we walked towards the trailhead, we were joined by few other groups of people. Some hikers were alone by themselves and we figured that their family might still be sleeping.

The trail was not difficult at all. The climb was gradual and the trail itself was quite wide. The view along the trail was simply breathtaking. We spent so much time stopping by every viewpoints to take beautiful photos of Crater Lake.

As we hiked up, we also ran into a groundhog! The groundhog was quite chubby with a huge tail at its back. It was right in the middle of the trail staring at us for almost a minute before it ran off to the side. It was hilarious.

We got to the top after about 40 minutes of hiking. When we got up, no one was there and we figured it was because we spent too much time taking photos along the way. The top of the mountain has a large platform for people to rest. It also has a panoramic view over Crater Lake National Park. We could just see how round Crater Lake really is.

When we hiked back down, we started to see more and more people coming up. We really recommend to do this trail and preferably in the morning. The sun light that shine on the surface of Crater Lake was just so amazing.