The Elkhorn Crest National Recreation Trail runs 23 miles along the spine of the Elkhorns, from Anthony Lakes down to Marble Pass, staying close to 8,000 feet for almost its entire length. It’s leash-legal, it’s got some of the best ridgeline dog hiking in eastern Oregon, and until two days ago, you couldn’t get on it at all.

That changed Sept. 28, when the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest trimmed the McCully Fire closure area down hard, according to the Baker City Herald. If you’ve been holding off on a fall trip to the Elkhorns, here’s what the trail actually looks like now — the route, the logistics of doing it as a multi-day trip with a dog, and the fire status that’s still worth watching before you drive out.

Trip Planning At a Glance

Detail	What You Need to Know
Route	Elkhorn Crest National Recreation Trail, Anthony Lakes to Marble Pass
Distance	23 miles end to end; most people split it over 2-3 days
Elevation	Stays near 8,000 feet most of the route, tops out around 8,200 feet
Dogs	Allowed on leash
Access road	Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway — fully reopened Sept. 28
Fire status	McCully Fire, 13,604 acres, 91% contained, hasn’t grown in three weeks

The Route, End to End

Starting from the Anthony Lakes side, the trail climbs onto the ridge fast and mostly stays there — this isn’t a valley trail with occasional viewpoints, it’s a high-alpine spine hike where the exposure is the whole point. Big views west into the North Fork John Day drainage, open rock and subalpine timber, none of the crowd pressure you’d find on a Cascades trail with the same profile.

Summit Lake sits roughly at the midpoint and makes a natural water stop and camp spot for dogs who need a break from the ridge exposure — it’s also back open as of this week, alongside the Crest Trail itself. From there the trail continues south toward Marble Pass, where most through-hikers arrange a car shuttle rather than doubling back the way they came.

Cracker Creek Road, between Sumpter and Bourne, reopened the same day and is one of the access points people use for shorter out-and-back sections if the full 23 miles isn’t the plan.

Planning It as a Multi-Day Trip

Most people doing the whole route aren’t day-hiking it. Figure two to three days if you want the full spine rather than a partial out-and-back, and plan camp spots around the handful of lakes and saddles that break up the ridge — Summit Lake being the obvious one. Our multi-day backpacking guide covers pack fit and mileage progression if this is your dog’s first trip that isn’t a there-and-back from a single trailhead.

Water is the other planning variable. A ridge route this exposed doesn’t have the constant creek crossings you’d get lower down, so treat any water source you pass as one you should use, not one you can skip because you’re not thirsty yet.

The Altitude Problem Nobody Plans For

Here’s the part that matters more on this trail than on almost any other dog hike in the region: a dog that’s spent the summer at Baker City’s valley elevation — roughly 3,400 feet — is not automatically ready for two or three straight days above 8,000 feet. This isn’t a trail where altitude is a brief high point on an otherwise low-elevation loop. It’s the entire route.

Watch for excessive panting that doesn’t ease with rest, stumbling, or disorientation, and build up shorter, lower sections first if your dog hasn’t spent real time above 7,000 feet before. Our altitude sickness guide covers what those warning signs look like on the trail, not just in a vet’s office — worth reading before you commit to a multi-day route where turning back means more than a short walk to the car.

Why the Trail Was Closed Until This Week

The McCully Fire started Aug. 22 from a lightning strike west of Sumpter, in steep timbered terrain that turned a single strike into a multi-week incident. It grew fast enough in its first two weeks to push evacuation levels up in Baker and Grant counties, eventually crossing into Grant County — which is part of why the original closure order covered 22 trails and six trailheads across the Whitman Ranger District, not just the Crest Trail itself.

At 13,604 acres, it’s the largest fire the Elkhorns have seen since the 20,000-acre Anthony Fire in 1960 — a 66-year comparison, not a “biggest in five years” one. Containment has held at 91% for more than three weeks, evacuations were fully lifted in both counties by Sept. 14, and crews are now doing repair work — fixing dozer lines, installing water bars — rather than active suppression. That’s the same mop-up phase Mount Hood’s Grasshopper Fire was in before its trails reopened in September.

What’s Still Off the Table

Two named trails stay closed: Baldy Creek Trail and Peavy Trail, along with the fire perimeter and a buffer zone between Forest Road 7345 and the North Fork John Day Campground. Part of that uncontained edge sits inside the North Fork John Day Wilderness, where crews intentionally aren’t doing direct fire work for safety reasons — that section won’t clear just because the rest of the fire calmed down.

The Forest Service’s updated closure order is the authoritative version, and it’s already been revised once since the fire started — read it before you drive out, not a screenshot of the September version.

Idaho’s Crooked Fire near Idaho City is a useful contrast here: same fire season, same general cause, but its closure order expanded the same week the McCully order shrank. One fire calming down tells you nothing about another fire fifty miles away — check the order for your specific trail.

Before You Load the Dog in the Car

A mostly-contained fire in timber can still put out enough haze on a still morning to matter at 8,000 feet, so check regional smoke before committing to a three-hour drive from Baker City. Our wildfire smoke and AQI guide covers the thresholds worth watching.

Route around Baldy Creek and Peavy regardless of what the containment number says, and call the Whitman Ranger District directly if the current order leaves anything unclear — a two-minute call beats guessing based on a status update that’s already a few days stale by the time you read it. The trail itself, the byway that gets you there, and the campground at the trailhead are open. For a 23-mile ridge route with an altitude problem baked into every mile of it, that’s the part worth planning around now.

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Fire size, containment, and reopening details from the Baker City Herald, current as of Sept. 28, 2026. Closure order specifics from the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest’s McCully Fire closure alert. Additional fire background from InciWeb. This is an active closure order that can change — confirm current conditions before any trip to the Elkhorns.