Vista Ridge is blooming! - 6/17/18
Posted: June 20th, 2018, 7:46 pm
Greg and I went up to Vista Ridge late in the afternoon on Sunday.
The avalanche lilies are looking nice! We went 1.6 miles from the TH to about 5100' at which point we were seeing quite a few unopened buds. The next few weeks should look pretty good up there! (We had about 20 minutes of rain around 4pm and then the sun came out. We totally missed the big storm in Portland, which didn't hit Mt. Hood at all.)
A trail crew hasn't been up there yet this season and we counted about two dozen downed trees.
Also note that Road 1810 is getting worse every year; I think the number of potholes has doubled since last year. I got so carsick on the drive up that I was nauseous for the first 30 minutes of the hike. Ugh.
BTW, there was a brand new sign at the trailhead that wasn't there last year. There's another one just like it after you turn right onto the Vista Ridge Trail. Kind of ironic considering the "war on trail signs" that the Mt. Hood Forest waged along the old Vista Ridge Trail for many years. I wonder if any of these new signs appear along that section!
On our way back we stopped at the roadside viewpoint of Mt. Hood and had a picnic dinner. It was sublime. We had been the last to leave the trailhead so there were no passing cars and no people; just us and the mountain and the birds.
The avalanche lilies are looking nice! We went 1.6 miles from the TH to about 5100' at which point we were seeing quite a few unopened buds. The next few weeks should look pretty good up there! (We had about 20 minutes of rain around 4pm and then the sun came out. We totally missed the big storm in Portland, which didn't hit Mt. Hood at all.)
A trail crew hasn't been up there yet this season and we counted about two dozen downed trees.
Also note that Road 1810 is getting worse every year; I think the number of potholes has doubled since last year. I got so carsick on the drive up that I was nauseous for the first 30 minutes of the hike. Ugh.
BTW, there was a brand new sign at the trailhead that wasn't there last year. There's another one just like it after you turn right onto the Vista Ridge Trail. Kind of ironic considering the "war on trail signs" that the Mt. Hood Forest waged along the old Vista Ridge Trail for many years. I wonder if any of these new signs appear along that section!
On our way back we stopped at the roadside viewpoint of Mt. Hood and had a picnic dinner. It was sublime. We had been the last to leave the trailhead so there were no passing cars and no people; just us and the mountain and the birds.