Elk Meadows 01-Oct-2010

[VanMarmot]

Yesterday, I made a brief pilgrimage to Elk Meadows. After crossing Newton Creek,



I wandered up to Elk Mountain for a view across to Lookout Mountain,



to mirror the view I had from Lookout back toward Elk and Hood in July of this year.



Then I spent some time in the meadows, enjoying the warm sunshine, Fall colors, and gentle breeze flowing across the grasses.







After far too short of a visit, I headed down, catching a last look at Hood from the trail into Newton Creek Canyon.



I wasn’t surprised to find the TH parking lot nearly full when I got back – why wouldn’t you want to be in the wilderness on a perfect Fall day? It had been sunny when I left Portland, but I returned to find it blanketed in a gloom of stubborn low clouds. I would have lingered longer on the Mountain had I known.

[mayhem]

Brings back some great memories and lots of Pain!! Even with Morphine, Vicodin, Tequila.

[Splintercat]

...well, that's an intriguing cliff-hanger, Mayhem... are you going to elaborate..?

Van, I like that shot looking across the meadows at Bluegrass Ridge -- the burn is already taking on a nice silver cast. I hiked up the cutoff trail right after the fire, and it was amazing how hot that fire was near the crest of the ridge -- even the beargrass was burned right down to the roots! I personally find burns to be quite beautiful, especially during recovery when you have a lot of standing snags remaining. As a kid, that was the predominant image around the south side of Mount Hood, where the snags from the Sherar and Kinzel burns were still up in force.

Nice pics -- fall colors looking nice, too. I picked a gorgeous week to pick up a crappy winter cold..! Ugh.

Tom

[mayhem]

...well, that's an intriguing cliff-hanger, Mayhem... are you going to elaborate..?

Van, I like that shot looking across the meadows at Bluegrass Ridge -- the burn is already taking on a nice silver cast. I hiked up the cutoff trail right after the fire, and it was amazing how hot that fire was near the crest of the ridge -- even the beargrass was burned right down to the roots! I personally find burns to be quite beautiful, especially during recovery when you have a lot of standing snags remaining. As a kid, that was the predominant image around the south side of Mount Hood, where the snags from the Sherar and Kinzel burns were still up in force.

Nice pics -- fall colors looking nice, too. I picked a gorgeous week to pick up a crappy winter cold..! Ugh.

Tom

herniated disk It acts up from time to time. I took all the pain killers above at the same to get relief, but relief was not to be. It turns out they did work because once I got out of the meadow and back home the drug wore off and I was bed ridden for 1.5 weeks. But This was still one of the most peaceful trips ever. I love this place!