Dalles Mountain Ranch
Except for one other couple, who left about 10 minutes after we got there, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We spent half an hour delighting in the flowers near the gate and for that first quarter mile of road beyond the gate. The balsamroot were definitely past peak and starting to look a little ragged. The lupine looked great, though. Also, it was such a clear day that we could see Mt. Jefferson in the distance.
I noticed a sign at the TH that I hadn't seen before. Not surprising, since this is owned by Washington State Parks, but the sign indicates you can buy a pass in the park, even though there is no pay station there.
Tom McCall Nature Preserve (aka Rowena Plateau)
Here too the balsamroot was past its peak, but still looking fine enough for photos.
When we first arrived here we were surprised to see that most of the parking at the viewpoint was closed off with orange cones.
As we were wrapping up we saw a convoy of vehicles, one of which had a camera on it, pull up from the direction of Mosier. Probably filming a commercial or something, I imagine.
They were taking a lunch break and all that coned area filled up with support vehicles, including an RV with a noisy generator.
Surely these guys had to get permits to do their filming. I was pretty surprised that they would be allowed to do their filming on a) a weekend, and b) during the height of the busy wildflower season here. Hundreds of cars, people, and cyclists descend on this area in spring. The film crew took up more than half the parking and their noisy generator was a nuisance. I was glad that we left soon after they arrived.
