Oregon Hikers

My wife and I stopped off at Mitchell Point on the way to Hood River. The early spring wildflowers were out on the summit ridge, and the views were splendid. Even though we only started up around 10:30 a.m., most people were arriving after us, so the trail (and parking lot) only got crowded in the late morning.


To avoid the crowds, we took the “Scott Cook solution,” mentioned in the latest edition of Curious Gorge, and zigzagged down the powerline road to Mitchell Creek and the Wygant Trail. The road winds in and out of forest across the powerline corridor giving good views of Wygant Peak. It is unnavigable by vehicles at present: There’s a boggy slump at the Mitchell saddle, and a large tree down halfway to Mitchell Creek.

Nice photos bobcat! I haven't been to Mitchell in a while, might have to go check out the Scott Cook solution:)

That's quite a field of grass widows. They don't usually bloom in that density. I saw quite a few in upper Syncline yesterday, but they are scattered all over.

drm wrote: ↑

April 5th, 2019, 7:48 am

That's quite a field of grass widows. They don't usually bloom in that density. I saw quite a few in upper Syncline yesterday, but they are scattered all over.

I've seen dense patches like that in the lower part of Coyote Wall, early in the grass widow season.

Thanks for the report.

Interesting about the grass widows. I don't remember seeing them packed so close together in years previous but this year I've spotted them in dense clusters as well.

Here is a meadow at 1,800' elevation on a ridge in the Herman Cr. drainage starting to bloom: (March 31st)


And another meadow at 2,900' on the ridge leading to Indian Point later that same day. Not blooming yet but this should be a nice show when it gets going:


I was surprised at how fast these came up in this second photo. This meadow was under over three feet of snow on 3/1 and still completely covered on 3/21. It's still about half covered in snow and the flowers are coming up under the snow at the edges. Tough little buggers! I wonder what effect the fire and resultant ash layer had on them.