Friday-Timberline here we come

Believe it or not, it was not raining today.  This is probably going to be our best chance to make it up on Mt Hood.  It's cloudy in Hood River so hopefully it isn't going to be to bad higher up.

As you can see we had a pretty low cloud cover on the way up Hwy 35 but as we came around a curve we got our first real view of Mt Hood.  Ah, what a welcome site!  I was beginning to think we were not going to see her this trip.  It looked like the weather was going to cooperate so we could get up to Timberline today.  Yeah!!

I didn't get a lot of pics going up the Timberline road cuz I wanted to video tape the 6 mile drive from the highway to the lodge.  It is quite curvy and fairly steep so still pics just don't tell the real story.  I did get this shot of the last stretch just before reaching the parking area below the lodge.  Notice the guide poles for the snow plows again.  I would love to come here just once in the winter to see what it looks like when the snow is that deep.  WOW!

This was our view of Mt Hood from the sno-park lot.  It was still cloudy over the mountain but within a few minutes we were looking at blue sky and sun over her.  Gorgeous and very unexpected.  I would have been happy even if it had stayed like this.  And actually the sky continued to clear while we were there.

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Looking south from the parking lot we got a beautiful view of Mt. Jefferson also highlighted by the sun.

Here is another view with Mt Jefferson on the right and just left of the middle are 3 smaller peaks known as the 3 Sisters.

After taking a pile of pics from the parking lot and hitting the Wy'East day lodge to check out the gift shop, we walked up to Timberline Lodge.  For anyone who has seen The Shining, this is the lodge they used for the outside shots of the hotel in the movie.  It is quite impressive from the front or back side.  The winter entrance is now in place on the front of the lodge in preparation for the snow.  We were lucky enough to get to stay here for a couple nights in 2011.   Just FYI, the little dormer window on the right side of the picture is the window of the room we stayed in.

  Inside the lodge is a massive stone fireplace as well as all sorts of other decorative details.

The view looking out the back of lodge is almost as good as the view from outside. 

It's pretty amazing to look at the peak close up.

The ski lifts were running.  This is the lift that is called the Miracle Mile and takes skiers or sightseers like us up to a ski hut a mile up the mountain.  Skiers continue up another lift, sightseers ride or hike back down.  We rode this up and hiked back down during our visit in the summer 2011, what a blast!  Little creepy since I am afraid of heights but it was worth the willies.

They're a little hard to see but there were quite a few skiers and snowboarders on Palmer today.  Sometimes I wish I knew how to ski or snowboard, it looks like so much fun!  Oh well, that's probably something for the next life.

The Pacific Crest Trail crosses just above the lodge and lest you think I just found all these awesome pics on the web I've included a couple pics of Julz and I.

Not all of the snow was farther up the mountain.  There were still some small patches in and around some of the plants and trees but looked like it was melting pretty fast.  The temperature was about 40 degrees.

Julz did manage to leave her mark in the snow, temporarily anyway. First Tracks!!!

There were a few green plants but the only flowers were these dried out ones.

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We hiked over to see ZigZag Canyon.  Julz had to take these pics.  I won't get anywhere near the edge of this.  Can you say "chicken"?  Doesn't look so bad in these pics but it would be quite a ride down the side.  Actually to follow the PCT, you have to go down into this canyon and back up the other side.

After finishing up at Timberline we headed back towards Hood River but took a detour along part of the Barlow Road by the Pioneer Woman's grave historical marker.  Never did see the marker but we found this water fountain along the roadside.  Didn't try any of the water, a sign said it was not tested so who knows what you could catch - Beaver Fever anyone?!

We also got our last good view of Mt. Hood from this road.  There appeared to be a lenticular cloud trying to form over the peak.

Heading back to the north side of the mountain it clouded back in like when we left.  What a difference one side to the other.

Since it was still fairly nice we headed north into Washington to see about getting some lunch and maybe driving up to Mt. Adams.  Lunch was a bust, the one place we wanted did not open until later and we could not find the other place we were looking for.  The drive was not a total waste though.  We did get a bit of a view of Mt. Adams.   It was not nearly as clear as Mt. Hood but we still got to see our other favorite mountain.

Well, tomorrow is the last day of our time here.  Wonder where we'll go.

Thursday-Over the River and Through the Woods

So, this morning it was raining.  Again!!  We spent part of the morning just shopping and browsing some of the shops here in town.  They have some very unique stuff here.

The weather began to improve as the day progressed and we decided to head across the Columbia and explore Washington for a while.

We like to drive up to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest near Mt. Adams but given the current weather conditions and the fact that the roads up there can be precarious even in good weather we opted for a less challenging drive up along the Klickitat River then looping back to Hood River.

We spotted some turkeys along the road so we were hopeful we would see more wildlife along the way.

At one point we considered turning back because the low hanging clouds were drastically decreasing visibility and one section of the road is just barely 2 lanes and probably closer to 1 and 1/2  right along a very steep hillside.  Because there was nowhere to turn around, we continued on up to the top of the ridge and were treated to some pretty amazing views of the valley.  Don't know if anyone has seen the movie Brigadoon but it seemed like you could just disappear into another world if you stepped through the mist.

As we descended off the ridge top, we got below the clouds and got a much clearer view of the valley and river.  Guess that other world I saw in the mist was just my imagination.

Wildlife was pretty scarce along the trip thus far, just the turkeys and the southbound end of a northbound deer on a hillside.  We headed back towards Hood River down a section of road that we have seen quite a variety of wildlife along in the past, a coyote, a bobcat, some turkeys and several deer.  Today we hit the jackpot.  Elk!!  And not just the hind end of one running through the trees like we've seen in the past.  A whole herd and actually this was only the first of two herds we saw.

Nearing the end of this road we crossed the White Salmon River.  We had considered a whitewater rafting trip on this river while we were here. But now actually looking at the river - Holy crap!--what was I thinking?! Actually, it probably would have been fun but the weather was just not very cooperative right now.  Maybe next time!

Since it was still fairly early, instead of crossing back over to Hood River, we drove back east along the Washington side of the Columbia and crossed back into Oregon at The Dalles so that we could drive another scenic section of Hwy 30. 

You get some pretty spectacular views of the Gorge from this section of highway.

And more wildlife also.

One good thing about the rain.....Rainbows.

Another good thing....The pretty water droplets clinging to everything.

Getting back to Hood River, we took a quick drive up to Panorama Point.  On a clear day there are awesome views of Mt. Hood and the Hood River valley from here.  The valley was quite pretty but Mt. Hood was no where in sight today.  Not even a glimpse.

The clouds even opened up a little to show so blue sky.

Tomorrow is supposed to be much better, weather-wise, so the plan is to drive up Mt Hood to Timberline Lodge and maybe do a little hiking along the way. We'll have to wait and see.