Rhododendron Paradise

Life has been busy, and it's time for me to catch up on my poor, neglected blog!  Too many weekends spent hiking, creating lots of photos to sort and edit, and not near enough time to do it all.  (If only that thing called work didn't interfere with my fun)

Catching the rhododendron bloom on Mt Hood is always one of my favorite early summer rituals.  In June these lovely pink blooms begin to emerge from behind the large waxy green leaves of this otherwise unremarkable bush.

Pink beauties

 

I picked a Friday to travel up to Mt Hood and hike one of the rhodie-rich trails.  I initially headed for the Mirror Lake Trail.  Although super popular, I remembered it's outstanding number of rhodie blooms from the previous year.  On my way up the large hill to Government Camp, I happened to glance over at the Pioneer Bridle Trailhead.  The surrounding forest was a sea of pink. 

 

Colorful bush

 

Not only was the Mirror Lake trailhead fairly busy, it was socked in with fog and spitting cold rain.   I wasn't in the mood to fight bad weather, knowing that conditions would get worse the higher I climbed.  Remembering the lower elevation Pioneer Bridle Trail and its proliferation of rhodie blooms, I turned my car around and headed back downhill.

The trail was lined in pink

 

It's amazing the difference a few hundred feet of elevation make in the weather.  Arriving back at the Pioneer Bridle Trailhead, not only was the fog nearly gone, but so was any precipitation.  And, best of all, mine was the only vehicle in the parking area.

 

More rhodie goodness

 

I've hiked this trail a couple of times, but not for many years.  The last time was in 2012 when I played tour guide for someone who commented on my blog and through resulting correspondence became friends.  (You can read about my experience here.)

Fog, ferns and rhodies - classic PNW

 

But today, with the cloudy, foggy skies threatening rain, I was the sole hiker.  From the trailhead I was immediately engulfed in a tunnel of pink blossoms.  Rhodie bushes lined my path for the first mile.  Yeah!  This is what I'd been seeking.  Let's just say my camera was mighty busy.

 

Lone beargrass

 

 

A bit of history - this particular path was once a route of the Oregon Trail.  An alternative to floating down the Columbia River, Sam Barlow created a rough path for brave pioneers up and over Mt Hood.   It wasn't easy - steep grades, dense forests, and swampy bogs were some of the difficulties these travelers faced.  Later, the trail was converted into a highway.  Years later, highway 26 was constructed nearby and this route reverted back to a hiking trail.

Bunchberry

 

Although cloudy and foggy, the rain held off as I climbed the old roadbed up a steep hill.  On top was more dense forest accented with pink rhodie blooms.

Wall of rhodies

 

The rhodie blossoms were all wet and heavy with recent rainfall.  Some drooped down, droplets trickling off their petals.

Soggy, droopy flowers

 

I came upon an old, mossy stone wall lining the ancient roadbed of the Oregon Trail.

 

Ancient stone wall lining the Barlow Road

 

And not much further down the trail I arrived at a stone tunnel, one of the final remnants of the old Mt Hood highway.

 

Old rock highway tunnel

 

From the tunnel, I followed an abandoned road a half mile to Little Zigzag Falls.  There's a road and parking area that access the waterfall area, and here I ran into the only people I would see all day.  A man and his wife were out for a quick ramble and seeing my camera, struck up a conversation.  The wife was scoping out the area for a photography class she'd enrolled in.  I had a nice chat about photography with them both.

 

Little Zigzag Falls

 

Now it was time to retrace my steps back down the Pioneer Bridle Trail.  Passing by an area of large boulders, I heard a faint "meep" of a pika.  Stopping and quietly waiting I was rewarded with a brief sighting of this cute little rock-rabbbit.

Pika sighting!

 

Then it was back downhill through rhodie-land, snapping more photos as I went.  I'm sure many of those bushes were documented twice, but things often look different coming from another direction. 

Back through rhodieland

 

Either way, I ended my day with a hearty 7 miles under my belt, and a memory card with plenty of pink rhododendron images.

Happy hiker

 

Early summer days in the Pacific NW don't get much better than that!

 

(On a different note does anyone else dislike the new Blogger interface as much as I do?  Ugh, I hate change, especially when something was working perfectly fine.)