Ramona Falls Hike

It was the last day before the rainy season and it was such a perfect day.  We hiked the Ramona Falls Trail on Mt Hood.  The first part of the hike is a slog through the sand and everything is dry, dry dry.  Then  you start following a lovely stream and it is like a different world and one much more to my liking.

The vine maples are showing their colors.

And this is Ramona Falls

You can see more of our photos here.

Ramona Fall Hike

Panther Creek Falls

We took the long way home from the Lewis River.  We were going to go through Trout Lake and then back to the Gorge.  However, we ended up following a bit of a maze of logging roads to Panther Creek Road.  As long as we were driving by, we stopped at Panther Creek Falls.

I couldn't capture the whole falls at once.... here is the bottom portion.

Looking straight down from the viewing platform.

All that in one day...

Hiking the Lewis River trail

 After we hung out for a while at Lower Falls, we had lunch and then hiked up river.  These are pictures from our hike along the Lewis River trail.

             

New bridge

         

Lower Falls of the Lewis River

As I said in the previous post, we took a day trip to the Lewis River.  We spent some time hanging out at the top of Lower Falls.  When the water is low, you can walk out on the rocky shelves of the lava flow.

Rock cairns in shallow water

Deep swimming hole

 John hung out at the top of the falls and read.  I walked around on the lava flow to take the photos of him reading.

from behind

 Here you can see how much higher the water gets.  We've been there when the water was part way of the stone steps on the right.  And when it is that high, it is also moving really fast.

Water level can rise to the stone steps on right

Day Trip to the Lewis River

This week  we did a day trip to the Lewis River.  It was a perfect day for it.  The light was so beautiful.  The weather was great.

The water is low now, as it usually is at this time of year.  Makes hanging out at the falls even better since you can go out on a lot of rock shelves (lava flows) that are under water when the level is higher.  I'll post more photos this week and more details...

St Helens from McClellan Point

St Helens from the road

Trail down to the falls

Notice all the bare rocky areas at the top of the falls.  That is where we hung out.

Lower Falls

Short hike to Fairy Falls

We have been too busy with the kitchen to get much hiking in lately.  We did make a quick trip to the gorge and a hike up to Fairy Falls.  The day was beautiful, the trail was quiet and golden light of late summer was spectacular.  So warm and soft...

Triple Falls Hike in July

Our hikes this year have been sticking to favorite and close by places.  We need to get an early start to beat the crowds.  Getting started early  also means beating the heat and hiking close by means we can get home and have time to get things done.  So this week, we went to Triple Falls.

Triple Falls

The hike starts at Horsetail Falls.  Isn't that a  a nice place to sit?  It looks so peaceful, at least at that time of morning.... when we came down, it was crawling with people and not at all peaceful.

Horsetail Falls

This photo is from the Oneonta Bridge.

Oneonta Bridge Falls

This is a nice place to cool down and splash some water on my face.  It comes at the end of a pretty steep section of the trail   and I always look forward to it.

John loves to read along the stream.

This is Ponytail Falls.  The trail goes behind the falls.  That overhang is actually quite large, almost a cave.  It's often jammed with people since it is pretty close to the trail head but I had it to myself today.  What a treat!

Here are more photos of our hike
     http://www.flickr.com/photos/donaleen/sets/72157630586039476/show/

Our hike this week

We hiked the Wahkeena Trail in the gorge.  It is our most frequent hike, especially when we don't want to spend much time driving but still want some good exercise.   This week we wanted to have the time and energy to do several things after our hike, so we didn't even go that far.

The gorge is getting a big influx of tourists now that it is summer.  The lower trails are clogged with people.  Many of them just want to tick off something on their vacation list.  They aren't used to hiking and they aren't wearing shoes that are easy to hike in.  And they don't look like they are having fun.  We get a lot of  "are we nearly at the top?"  The answer to that is a resounding "NO".

It's a pretty special place but you do have to get past a set of switchbacks first.  These pictures are all after the 13 or so switchbacks.

You can click on the photos to get a better look at them.

Triple Falls Hike

We hiked to Triple Falls and a little more.  The morning air smelled amazing and, oh, the light!  The first half mile or so felt really hard (some days are like that) but then it was fine.  Here are my favorite pictures from that hike.  You can click on them to get a better look at the photo.

Resting in my rock and tree-root chaise lounge looking out on the Oneonta Gorge.  There were people down there wading in Oneonta.  Must have been cold water!