Emigrant Lake on the Little Songer Butte Trail 3-28-25

Photos by Elisabeth and Gladys

Ashland Hiking Home

Eleven of us braved the forecast for rain and had a terrific hike with minimal rain. We hiked along the east side of Emigrant Lake on the northbound trail to Little Songer Butte. We parallelled the Lake up to a lovely walk along a hillside meadow used for paragliding. The trail continued on a rolling terrain through manzanita in bloom with their sweet pink flowers.

From time to time, the landscape opened to small meadows graced with huge boulders. Up and down through the trees, we experienced the thrill of the first wildflowers. Among the flowers showing up this early spring were butter cup, shooting star, hounds’ tongue, fawn lily, and even tuberous grasspink (orchid family).

When we reached the Y intersection to Little Songer Butte we first took the trail to the right up over the hillside for views westward. We continued down the other side of the hill southward awhile before turning around to return to the Little Songer Butte intersection. We climbed up into more manzanita and vistas over the lake until we reached Little Songer Butte for lunch in the rocks.

We returned the same way until we came to a spur trail down to the right to reach the roadbed near the lake, which took us southward on a rather wet trail leading back to the parking lot. We hiked about 4 miles with 400-500’ elevation gain.

Elisabeth