Sunday, June 23, 2019
We have been having cool cloudy weather in this last part of June, and unfortunately this weekend Saturday was the better day of the two. I was unavailable on Saturday, so today was my only day to head down and hike Bachelor and Coffin Mountains. It’s a five-hour round-trip drive from where we live, but Greg and I headed out Sunday morning.
On Road 1168 to the trailhead we passed a nice patch of beargrass alongside the road. This has been a great year for beargrass:
Further along we passed another great flower patch, this time with rhododendrons and beargrass:
There was also a big patch of monkey flower:
I spent about ten minutes taking pictures, then I was ready to go. But Greg took 30 minutes to thoroughly document the entire area:
We passed yet another roadside patch, this time full of delphinium:
At the Bachelor Mountain trailhead we discovered that someone had inconsiderately built a fire ring right in the parking area. Seriously? I cleaned it up:
From the trailhead we could see the Coffin Mountain lookout perched high above us:
Just five minutes up the trail we got our first sweeping view, including a view of the huge beargrass meadow on Coffin that we would visit later in the day:
Mt. Washington, the Three Sisters, and the Husband:
Three Fingered Jack:
There is a long open stretch on this trail with great views and wildflowers:
Coffin Mountain was visible behind us:
The top of Mt. Jefferson was visible for awhile:
We had a view of the Bachelor Mountain summit before re-entering the trees:
We reached a junction with an old sign and a new sign:
We turned left for the last push to the summit. There were lots of about-to-bloom beargrass in the trees:
Phlox:
There was a patch of snow just below the summit:
I reached the summit at 12:45. There were three people up there with their off-leash dog, who kept wandering around the summit while they kept shouting, “Dylan! Here Dylan!” The dog completely ignored them. Since your dog is not under voice control, how about trying a leash next time?
Mt. Jefferson now had a cloud in front of it:
There was a good view of the area that burned in the 2017 Whitewater Fire:
The views aren’t quite 360-degrees since there are trees, but you can still see a lot. Mt. Hood just barely visible through the clouds:
Looking northeast in the direction of Hood, not really visible in this shot:
Looking north:
And of course neighboring Coffin Mountain:
The Three Sisters:
Diamond Peak:
Gold Butte Lookout:
The fire lookout up here was burned down decades ago and there are just a few artifacts left:
Hiking back down the clouds were getting thicker:
Now on to Coffin Mountain!
