My geocache at Wauna Viewpoint needed to be replaced so I decided to celebrate National Trails Day on Saturday by hiking up there with a new cache. I invited my friend Dawn to join me.
We started out at the Tooth Rock trailhead and headed east on the historic highway, now a nice paved bike path.
As we neared Eagle Creek we got a view of Bonneville Dam. See all those clouds? It was cloudy and warm and it made for a pretty muggy morning!
We saw a number of tiger lilies blooming (or about to bloom) on our hike. I love these!
Since we were so close we headed over to the bathrooms at Eagle Creek before continuing on our hike. We had been hearing loud music for awhile and it seemed to be coming from the Eagle Creek area. We couldn’t see where it was coming from (not yet, anyway), but the thumping bass followed us on our hike for most of the day.
After our bathroom break we headed up the trail to connect with old Road 777. We spotted this carving on a log.
Everything is green and lush, including the moss on this giant fallen tree.
The ferns in this one area were huge, almost as tall as we were!
Since the hike to Wauna Viewpoint is relatively short we decided to first take a two-mile round-trip detour up Road 777 to the old Wauna Point trailhead, where some lovely little waterfalls are located. The sun had just started coming out so the photos were a bit tricky. I love these falls, though. So pretty!
Then we headed back down the road and picked up the Gorge Trail, then the side trail up to Wauna Viewpoint.
We could see across to Washington.
And there was a big distant waterfall between the two mountains. Greenleaf Falls?
Bonneville Dam
Looking east to Bridge of the Gods and Cascade Locks. Man I love all that beautiful green!!
Looking up the canyon of Eagle Creek.
Looking west.
The skies had cleared up quite a bit and the views were so nice. I hid my cache, we enjoyed a snack, and then sat and soaked up the views. I don’t think this viewpoint sees too many visitors, which is a shame. It’s a short and not difficult hike and the payoff is pretty big.
After we got back to the car we stopped at Eagle Creek to try and locate the source of the obnoxious music that had we had been hearing for most of the day. We finally found it at the reservable group use area on the north side of the freeway at Eagle Creek. There was a huge group camped out there and they had music thumping out of a bunch of amps. I wonder if that was even legal.
Great hike and great company!
