Saturday, March 31, 2018
Note: Watch for ticks and poison oak if you hike here.
Greg and I headed out to Coyote Wall to do a loop hike there. We hit the trail at 9:15 under chilly overcast skies. If you hike here, please note that dogs must be on-leash:
We saw this group at the beginning of the hike and later on as well. The dog was never on a leash:
We trekked down old Highway 14:
The desert parsley was going gangbusters. We saw lots of it.
At 0.4mi we passed the trail where we would come out later:
Further along at 0.7mi we picked up our trail and started climbing up.
Columbia Desert Parsley:
Despite the clouds we managed to get a view of Mt. Hood:
The river was glassy calm:
There was popcorn flower EVERYWHERE:
Avalanche Lilies:
Yellow bells:
First balsamroot sighting of the season!
The sun started to break through a bit as we hiked down:
By this time we were encountering huge numbers of people. And we were witnessing plenty of bad hiker behavior: picked wildflowers left on the trail, off-leash dogs, dog poop bags left behind, and adults, kids, and dogs wandering through the meadows, trampling the wildflowers. It was discouraging, and we were glad to get back to the trailhead. Still, despite all that, it was a great hike. Here are all the wildflowers Greg noted seeing on this loop. 6 miles, 1100′ elevation gain.
