Hike With Us...

We spent the first day of summer hiking another "new to us" trail. We weren't sure what to expect because the hiking book said this trail was open July through October and mentioned snow. We didn't encounter any, but it's been a warmer than usual June. 

The trail was beautiful and kept changing drastically. You didn't have to hike very far to get the first amazing. view. 

Look tat that view of Mt. Hood....we were standing on Bald Mountain looking toward Mt. Hood. Do you see the two creeks that come together? That's where we eventually hiked to. Those two creeks form the Sandy River which is what flows from the mountain and into the Columbia River here in Troutdale.

We rounded a corner and saw this little guy...a young elk. He was very curious and kept staring at us. He even started walking toward us before heading up the hill, into the trees.

Once we got to the area with the creek, we felt like we were in another country. It was so beautiful.

This is looking back at Bald Mountain - where we had hiked from.

We could have kept hiking....we weren't quite to the summit of the trail, but we needed to get back for an evening event so we turned around.

It's such a different view when you are hiking in a different direction. Here we are on Bald Mountain again.

One last amazing view....I wish the sky had been more blue. It started blueing up as we drove home.

All in all, we hiked somewhere between 8-9 miles. At one point on our way back we missed the turn to the parking lot and hiked an extra 1/2 mile on the Pacific Crest Trail. All of a sudden Kevin asked if anything looked familiar and that's when we realized we'd missed the turn off.

The girls did amazing....on the way back, they were ahead of us most of the time. I definitely want to go back and do this trail again some day.