I'm taking a "working vacation" this week (home improvement project), but carved out Wednesday for an uncrowded visit to the Eliot Moraine loop. I'd been up there a couple weeks ago, but on Wednesday I was doing some trail maintenance (as this is one of my adopted trails) and the temps looked enticing at that elevation. While it was brilliantly sunny, it stayed in the 70s, and a nice breeze picked up by early afternoon -- so really quite lovely compared to 90s down in Portland! Some photos from the trip... starting with the hike up Tilly Jane canyon, where I was following a pair of snowboarders headed to Cooper Spur:
...and beyond the Cooper Spur shelter...
...and to the switchbacks on Cooper Spur...
...where I veered off to my photo haunts along the rim:
...and as those clouds to the left of the mountain emerged to finally consume the summit, I shot some close-ups of the Eliot Glacier, a spectacle to behold, as always:
...and St. Helens, which had what looked like a steam plume...? Probably just a cloud...
The tundra slopes above the treelike were buzzing with bees and wonderfully sweet-smelling, thanks to thousands of these dwarf lupine (and I really tried not to step on them in my size 12 flower-crushers):
Lots of these, too -- I think this is sulphur flower:
Wandered about, including a stop at one of my favorite krummholz trees -- a whitebark pine that is easily a couple hundred years old:
...and an iPhone pano looking the other way -- the view the old tree enjoys:
Next, I backtracked down to the climbers trail that heads over to the Eliot Glacier from the shelter and started down the moraine trail -- lots of tiny flowers blooming amid the rocks:
I finally took a moment to photograph the unlikely windbreak/shelter just off the crest of the moraine, about halfway back to Cloud Cap -- the huge boulder here seems to be teetering and ready to fall at any moment... not sure I'd spend the night under there..!
More moraine views of the mountain and flowers along the way...
....and a final iPhone view of the mighty Eliot Glacier and Eliot Branch emerging from the terminus:
Pulled these signs down at the trailhead -- really bad idea to tell people this crossing is "open"! Wow. Yet, someone took the time to make these signs and staple them up with a staple gun.
....finally, on the way down the Cloud Cap Road I came across several Mount Hood (aka Cascade or Washington) lilies -- love these! Stopped and took photos... and took in the amazing fragrance!
...and then I came back to civilization and resumed installing insulation and drywall...
-Tom
