Dog Mountain Hike

Yesterday we had the opportunity to hike Dog Mountain with some friends from church. We did this hike two years ago (just the four of us) and when we got to the top, several people applauded when they say the girls. It's just that kind of hike - long and steep - and not many kiddos are up for that.

Here are the four friends that were brave enough to hike with our family. Ed, Carol, Ross and Diane...

This trail has some of the best wildflower displays in the area, but we were about one month too early to see the colorful display, However, we did spot some early bloomers along the way.

Indian paintbrush

Trillium

Lady Slippers

We had some seriously cute hikers along with us - like this girl...When I looked at her one the trail yesterday, I could not believe how big and old she is looking.

This part of the trail was the most precarious - the trail was very narrow and was along the side of a pretty steep hill.

Here are the girls at the top with Ed. This is the same Ed who had us running around town last week looking for puzzle pieces. Our girls think he's pretty cool and fun.

And here is Carol coming up the final ascent to the summit.

And Ross, Carol and Diane at the top. We made an ascent of 2900 feet!

The girls found another geo cache at the top. This one wasn't really hidden like the last one we stumbled upon. But they thought it was cool to find another one.

And here's all of us at the top.

This is one of the better views and was actually not at the summit ~ this was down a ways. Here we are looking to the east...Dog Mountain is on the Washington side of the Columbia so we are looking down at Oregon.

Looking straight across at Oregon

And looking west

I just love to watch ferns uncurl and stopped to take some photos.

At one point we came upon this strange thing

and these strange things popped out!

We barely got home in time to clean up and head off to a murder mystery event at our church!

What did you do this weekend?