Hood River Mountain

Today we drove east of Hood River OR to the "trailhead" that goes up to the middle of Hood River Mounain to hike along the ridge. This trail is in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. It was chilly, cloudy, windy and beautiful! From the side trail up to the ridge line, we first hiked south to the viewpoint overlooking the Columbia River, then returned and hiked north until the trail was going to descend steeply down to the road further away. We then returned back the way we came, not seeing any other hikers until we were almost back to the trailhead.

views along our route:

From the viewpoint to the north overlooking the Columbia River below and a cloud covered Mt Adams across the river (zoom of a cloud covered Mt Adams below)

near the south end of the trail, we turned around where the trail re entered the woods going steeply down.

near the end of our hike, Mt Hood came out from the clouds! zoom below

some of the wildflowrs seen along the trail this morning:

Eagle Creek

We drove to the Eagle Creek Trailhead near Cascade Locks, Oregon to hike the trail up to Tunnel and Twister Falls and back. There were lots of wildflowers besides the waterfalls and not many people on the trail. Overall we hiked 12.5 miles with 1,100 ft of gain.

View of Eagle Creek near the trailhead

one of the weeping walls along the trail

There are several places along the trail that are ledges on the sides of rocky cliffs.

Views along the trail

Lots of Larkspur and sea blush in bloom along the trail.

zoom of Metlako Falls 

Large stone steps across Sorenson Creek

Punchbowl Falls

Bridge over Tish Creek

Tish Creek downstream

Tish Creek Upstream

There were quite a few Oregon anemones in bloom along the trail.

More views along the trail

Loowit Falls

Eagle Creek below

Views from High Bridge (3.3 miles up the trail) looking downstream and

upstream

View further upstream

Looking back at High Bridge above the gorge

zoom of Four Mile Falls

views downstream fro Four One Half Mile Bridge

and upstream

zoom of Tenas Falls

Wy'East Falls above Wy'East Creek

zoom of Wy'East Falls

One of many views of Eagle Creek along the trail

Interesting stones along one of the ledges

Grand Union Falls

View of Tunnel Falls from the north side

views from inside the tunnel behind Tunnel Falls

looking out to the south side of the trail from the tunnel

View of the tunnel entrances behind Tunnel Falls

Tunnel Falls

The trail between Tunnel and Twister Falls

Twister Falls

Eagle Creek entering Twister Falls

Glacier lilies near Twister Falls

Tunnel Falls and a rainbow in the mist

Eagle Creek upstream from Twister Falls

We also saw some bird nest fungi and

a boulder covered in small shelf fungi.

some of the wildflowers seen in bloom along the trail today: