Paradise Park 8/19

[pdxgene]

Well, I wouldn't have thought it possible but there were less people up there today than at Ramona Falls when I went last week. Yay
The trip up #778 thru the forest was pretty uneventful. All the lower flowers are done. Things seemed to wrap up pretty early for the wildflowers this season. Both footbridges survived any downpours
Cloudy and cool all the way up (a good thing on that climb). We were getting worrried we'd see neither sun nor flowers. But just as we broke thru the last of the forest to the Mt Hood views..









This meadow just below the loop trail junction was about the lowest full meadow of flowers..





A closer look at Mt Hood..


The yellow and pink monkeyflower in Lost Creek Canyon..


Some shots from Lost Creek Canyon..








Mt Hood from the next set of wildflower meadows..











Some thick bands of clouds rolled thru while we had lunch at Split Rock. The temp would drop fast when the sun disappeared..


Heading back thru Lost Creek Canyon..





A couple last looks at the wildflowers and Mt Hood..





Today's group shot..


Starting back down and the last of the wildflower meadows..





The price to pay to get to Paradise..



Album here... http://picasaweb.google.com/pdxgene/ParadisePark26
Even though it's all downhill it's still a long way back down.. The flowers are still strong by the creeks but fading fast everywhere else. There's almost nothing left below the loop trail junction. Just a great day up there. Amazingly few people, nice periods of sunshiny blue sky. Pretty tough to beat.
If you want to see much of a flower show I wouldn't wait much longer..

[Splintercat]

Nice, Gene! I'm impressed that you took the HARD way up there..! Brownie points for all that elevation gain!

Tom

[pdxgene]

Thanx Tom..

I've always liked that trail. Mostly soft dirt and pine needly to walk on. Nothing really exciting to look at but it's super quiet and the segments of it differ enough so you always have a pretty good idea of where you are. And the much easier drive and all downhill hiking back is a nice double feature. It's always that last stretch from the PCT junction up to the Loop Trail junction that's a killer. It just goes straight up.
This trail is on the front page of the Mt Hood fs site as 'hike of the month'.. That has disaster written all over it..

Oh, and no bugs except bees in the meadows. And they've got stuff to do. Though a pretty good breeze may or may not have caused that.

[Waffle Stomper]

What a beautiful hike and look at all the flowers! Thanks for the great trip report.

[Rustygoat]

This trail is on the front page of the Mt Hood fs site as 'hike of the month'.. That has disaster written all over it..

Damn, now I wish I didn't put this one off. Next week is going to suck then. Oh well, I'm only going to be on trail for a little while anyway. Nice pictures Gene....Thank you for sharing!

[Roy]

Nice tr Gene these cool days are great for those elevation hikes. I think I'm the only one around here that has never been there before.

[pdxgene]

Thanx!
You actually could do this as an almost all downhill with a car shuttle. Start at Timberline Lodge and end up down on Highway 26. The only uphill would be coming out of ZigZag Canyon on the way there. That could make it easier for someone who really wanted to see it without the climb there or if coming from Timberline Lodge the climb back.