Mt. Scott

The entirety of Crater Lake National Park is located at high altitude, but the highest point within the park is Mt. Scott, which reaches an altitude of 8929 feet. This 420,000 year old volcano can be found the east of the rim of the lake.

Mt. Scott was at one time one of several volcanoes which overlapped the flank of Mt. Mazama, which itself was actually composed of a number of separate cones and vents. It was the largest of the cones associated with the main vent, having been fed by the same magma chamber as Mazama itself.

The rocks which form Mt. Scott are fully 420,000 years old.

The crater and the northwest side of the mountain has been heavily eroded by glaciation. This can be easily seen in the picture below.

There is a popular trail which leaves the rim road just below Cloudcap and climbs to the summit of the mountain, a distance of about 2.5 miles. There is no camping along this trail. At the summit there is a fire tower, which is just visible in the photograph below. The summit of Mt. Scott has been used as a fire lookout station since 1926.

Another view of Mt. Scott is shown below, from the side of Rim Drive southwest of the mountain.

Mt. Scott was named for a pioneer in Oregon named Levi Scott. Scott founded the town of Scottsburg in Oregon's Douglas County.

The mountain is shown from several perspectives in the series of photographs below. First, Mt. Scott is shown from along the road which leads to the Cloudcap Overlook. As mentioned above, the full extent of glaciation can be seen from this perspective.

This picture of Mt. Scott shows the mountain from the southwest, along Rim Drive south of Sentinel Rock.

A view of the south side of the mountain is provided by the valley of Wheeler Creek, in the area of the Pinnacles Overlook.

A similar shot from a nearby position is shown below.

Crater Lake National Park features two main areas--the lake and its rim area, and the wild backcountry which accounts for most of the rest of the park. The rim area accounts for 1/5 of the park area, but receives 99 3/4% of visitors to the park in the summer. Mt. Scott, of course, is a major feature of the non-rim area.