For centuries, local native tribes would gather here each summer to partake of the lands' bounty throughout what is now Indian Heaven Wilderness. They would harvest roots from the broad meadows that cover the areas, hunt the resident deer and elk, fish in the hundreds of small lakes that dot the landscape, and pick bushels of berries. Heaven, indeed.

The local tribes gathered in such numbers that after harvesting food all day, the young men needed some way to challenge each other. So they raced. They raced so frequently and with such vigor that the track their thundering horses drummed into the dirt still exists today. This is the Indian Racetrack.
 
A still-active lookout tower sits atop Red Mountain, and it is worth a few minutes' delay to hike up to the lookout cabin before beginning the hike. Astounding views of the volcanic landscape of the South Cascades are found from the cabin. Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood, and Mount Adams line the horizons. The giant scab of the Big Lava Bed sprawls at your feet to the southeast, and a host of little cinder cones dot the countryside all around-most notably, The Wart to the south, and the crater cone in the center of the Lava Bed to the east.