We arrived and the parking lot was full, but a nice woman told us we could park behind them in the trailer parking area. The day was mixed sun, horizontal showers (during half the hike) and high wind outside of the Eightmile Creek canyon! Despite the crowds, it felt like we had the place to ourselves most of the time!
At the Dalles Ranch, there were no people around, except for the threesome hiking back down from Stacker Butte! On the way back from the Dalles Ranch we saw no people, but then we were on the east side of the park where the winds were high and the rain coming down horizontally (but not too heavy)! The winds were brutal along the trail that follows the powerline, and my wife almost had to sit down a few times (my poor estimate was 50-60 mph! 
)!Pardon my lack of knowledge on the names of many flowers. The Desert Parsley was predominantly located early on in the hike, closer to the Gorge. The Balsam Root is blooming and was plentiful, and AWESOME, but the peak season is likely 1-2+ weeks out as many plants weren't ready to bloom. You wouldn't be disappointed to come out and see them now, as you can see in the pictures below. My wife and I want to see the hills carpeted in Balsam Root blooms (there are flowers blooming in the hills in some spots) and will probably head up to Stacker Butte in the next couple weeks. Stacker Butte is also supposed to have an amazing view of all the volcanoes, on a clear sunny day!
We'll see how things have progressed in one week, although there won't be much overlap with last week's hike since we'll start at the Dalles Ranch parking lot instead of Crawford Oaks.
