Last year Greg and I backpacked to Paradise Park with friends via the Timberline Trail from Timberline Lodge. This year we did a day hike via the Paradise Park Trail. We visited a month earlier than we did last year but the flowers were at the same stage as our visit last year. Crazy how it can vary by a whole month from one year to the next!
The rain storm from the previous night must have been a doozy. There were channels carved through the thick layer of pine needles on the trail.
Lots of Rhododendrons along the trail.
Also lots of huckleberries! I like the red ones but these were the blue ones which are even better in my opinion.
Where the trail gets close to the cliff with the view we couldn’t see much because of the clouds.
Up, up, up. The trail is well-graded but it is VERY LONG.
About a mile before reaching the junction with the trail to Zigzag Mountain we started encountering blowdown. We had to climb over at least a dozen trees in that last two miles. Some of them looked like they were from last year, so I guess they don’t get up here every year for trail maintenance.
Another thing to note is that on the new Trails Illustrated map for the Mt. Hood Wilderness the mileage between the Zigzag Mountain Trail junction and the Timberline Trail junction is 0.2mi. We measured it at 0.4mi.
Shortly before reaching the junction with the Timberline Trail we got a peek through the trees at the mountain. It would be the only time all day we’d see the full mountain.
Here come the wildflowers!
Mountain? What mountain?
We headed over to check out the lovely creek, passing through more wildflowers along the way. This patch had pasque flower!
The flowers were exploding in the area around the creek. Still no mountain.
We sat by the creek for awhile enjoying the ambience and a snack. Lovely spot!
We could see up on the hill where a nice patch of beargrass had been blooming several weeks ago.
We retraced our steps back to the trail junction to check out the huge meadow there. On the way we got a good view to the west and the thick layer of clouds below.
More flowers!
Still no mountain.
The sunshine was pleasant and the meadows were enchanting. We found a flower-free patch of grass and waited to see if the mountain would come out of hiding. I lay down facing the mountain, with my pack as a pillow. It was so peaceful and nice there that I dozed off. 😀
Anyway, the mountain never did make a full appearance. This was about as good as it got, which was still pretty dang nice.
On the way back down we passed the tallest Pine Drops that I’ve ever seen. Wow!
The views at the cliff had improved.
10 miles in a day is about my limit, so I was dragging for the last two miles back to the car, feeling every step in my feet, legs, and knees. Thank goodness the trail wasn’t steep! Took us a little less than four hours going up and about three hours going down. We saw only two people on the trail for the whole hike, and about a dozen people in Paradise Park. Maybe it was the weather? We saw WAY more people than that last year.
