A group of volunteers (who would eventually formalize into a non-profit called Trailkeepers of Oregon) brought back to life an abandoned section of the Vista Ridge Trail. When you park at the Vista Ridge Trailhead everyone heads south on the Vista Ridge Trail towards Timberline Lodge. But you could also turn left and follow the trail out towards Red Hill and Perry Lake. Greg had been part of a big trail maintenance event in September 2007 years ago. He’s been wanting to get me out there (and I’ve been eager to go!) for quite awhile, but weather and other plans always thwarted us. This weekend we were finally successful!
We wanted to be out there in the afternoon for the good light, so we started off the day by visiting Yocum Falls. We parked at the Laurel Hill turnout and hiked along the old highway, dropping down the hill on a steep boot path until we reached Camp Creek and the waterfall. It was pretty chilly, but fortunately there was no spray from the waterfall. We did see ice along vegetation on one side of the falls, though! You can kind of see it on the right side in this picture.
After taking pictures of the waterfall, we spent half an hour looking for the geocache in the vicinity, then headed back out to the car. We had planned to reach the Vista Ridge trailhead by 3:00, but it was nearly 3:30 by the time we got there. That is one long drive back in there to that trailhead, made worse for me because I get so carsick so easily. (One note: I don’t have pictures of it, but the vine maple under the power lines along Lolo Pass Road looks FANTASTIC right now!)
We stopped along the road just before the trailhead to take pictures of the fiery vine maple and the mountain. There was a high layer of clouds, but our view was unobstructed.
We hiked quickly out along the trail towards Owl Point. It was miserably cold. I had on three layers plus my hat and my huge snow gloves, and I was still cold. We had run into some snow lingering on the side of the road earlier and we ran into many patches of snow on the trail.
We didn’t quite have time to go as far as Owl Point, and we were seeking a geocache at the Rockpile anyway, so we made that our picture-taking spot. Although the south side of the mountain is starting to look bare again, there’s still plenty of snow on the north side after last week’s big dump. Here’s Greg taking pictures.
And here’s my best shot from the bunch I took. Photography this afternoon was really difficult because of the cold. I couldn’t operate the camera with my huge gloves on, but if I took my gloves off my fingers quickly grew numb and I still couldn’t operate the camera! I did the best I could.
The light was fading and the temperate was dropping, so we quickly hiked back to the car. We zoomed down the road and stopped again at the viewpoint, where another photographer was stopped. The three of us took pictures of the setting sun shining on Mt. Hood. Lovely! The cold was too much for me, though, and I spent all of five minutes taking pictures before retreating to the car.
It was nice to finally hike this trail after reading so much about it on here and hearing about it from Greg. I look forward to going back (hopefully on a warmer day!).
