Dog Mountain

Here in the northwest corner of Oregon, we love love love love the Columbia River Gorge. It's an amazing and wonderful place, with tons of beautiful hiking trails, which we take great pride in knowing and conquering. One of the most famous (infamous?) is Dog Mountain, on the Washington side of the Gorge. The trail to the top of Dog Mountain is about 3.5 miles each way, and the trail gains 1000 feet of elevation per mile: STEEP! Why bother? Because Dog Mountain has amazing views and amazing wildflowers in the late spring. Wow-wow-wow-wow! So now you're so curious, and you want to see pictures...here you go!

Wild roses and lupine

Lupine

Meadows of arrowleaf balsamroot - the big bright yellow flowers. 

They are in steep meadows on the side of Dog Mountain - I'm pretty sure the meadows are talus slopes that have filled in with windblown dirt so the plants can grow.

Kodak moment with the Columbia River in the background.
It was windy!

Same spot - turned around with the meadow and Dog Mountain in the background.

The balsamroot with some smaller pink and yellow flowers.

This gives a sense of how steep the meadows are.

Steep trail!

This one's for Dorothy.
Not sure what the name is, but they sure were pretty!

Looking toward Oregon. You can see a train down near the river.

More of our beautiful Gorge scenery.

The Outdoor Club from Oregon City High School. 

They were hiking Dog Mountain today, and we met up with them partway up the mountain. 

(We started an hour before they did...
but of course they caught up to us!)

Another photo with the Outdoor Club.

That's Mt. Saint Helens in the background!

You can also see Mt. Hood from the top of Dog Mountain.

Headed back down the mountain. See the trail down there? With people on it?

When we were on the top of the mountain, we felt strong and wonderful - king and queen of the mountain! It was a HUGE job to get to the top, and took a lot of hard work and hard breathing, but we did it! It's funny, but going down was much more difficult than climbing to the top. Our knees were getting really shaky by the time we finally got back to the car. But we made it, and now we're home resting, proud and happy that we conquered Dog Mountain today.