Cowiche Mountain

Drove to the East side of the Cascades looking for Wildflowers and signs of Spring. We choose to do the Cowiche Mountain loop hike at Snow Mountain Ranch. We did about 6.5 miles with 1,100 ft of gain. The wildflowers were few, I think they are blooming later this year compared with last year.

 Most of the trail junctions are well signed.
We started along the Riparian Trail East up to the Cowiche Mountain Trail East

 On this cloudy day, we did not get views of the Cascades to the west, but did have nice local views of the surrounding area.












View along the top of Cowiche Mountain looking westward.

 View through a gate in the fence looking south.

 Heading down the Cowiche Mountain Trail West

 There was lots of parsley in bloom.
We continued down the Wildflower Trail.

 We followed th Balanced Rock Trail eastward. The balanced rock is fairly small.

 Another view of the rock formations with the Balanced Rock to the left.

We returned view the Ditch Bank Trail, this goes below the Balanced Rock Trail.

The rock formations as seen from below.

Some of the wildflowers we saw on the trail today: