PARADISE
Tuesday
was our last full day in Oregon. A hike
on Mount Hood was at the top of the priority list. In fact, originally we had seriously
considered climbing the mountain with a guided service. Due to snow conditions, that would have occurred
at the very beginning of the trip.
Christy was concerned that starting off with a climb of Mount Hood would
cause her knee to swell and ruin the rest of the trip. A guided climb also would’ve been
expensive. We decided to skip it.
Christy’s
ankle was really hurting after hiking 13 miles the previous day. She decided to go mountain biking instead of
hiking. She found a place at Government
Camp that rents mountain bikes. That was
near Timberline Lodge, where I would start my hike to Paradise Park. I picked the Paradise Park hike because it is
loaded with views and famous for its wildflowers. We’d been a bit early for wildflowers on most
of our hikes over the first two weeks of the trip, but I was hopeful that they
would be blooming on Mount Hood’s western slopes.
The
weather forecast looked great, and it was clear as we made the long drive on
back roads from Lost Lake across the northwest side of Mount Hood. As we approached the trailhead, we were
treated to our first clear views of Mount Hood since we’d driven north from
Bend the previous week. Christy dropped
me off at Timberline Lodge, which is famous for being one of the locations
where Stephen King’s “The Shining” was filmed.
Timberline Lodge isn’t a quaint little cabin in the woods. It’s a massive operation, with a ski slope
and several climbing outfitters. I
wandered around in the maze of trails above the lodge until I stumbled on the
Pacific Crest Trail. This is all alpine
country here, with unlimited views.
Unfortunately a mass of clouds had surrounded the summit. Where did those come from?
They
were persistent. In fact, I was up high
enough that I was in the fog for long stretches of the hike. Fortunately the wildflowers were incredible
throughout the hike. There were some fantastic
meadows early on, and an absolute garden of flowers
on the descent into Zigzag Canyon. It
was still a little early for them in Paradise Park, but the Beargrass
and Avalanche Lilies were fantastic.
The
summit was completely hidden from view when I reached the Zigzag Overlook – an
exposed ridge high above Zigzag Canyon.
I stopped for lunch there in hopes that the clouds would break. That didn’t work out, so I began the long
descent to the bottom of the canyon. The
wildflowers and views to the west kept me entertained along the way. I rock hopped the creek, and noticed a nice
waterfall a short distance upstream. I
climbed out of the canyon and hiked through forest to a junction with the
Paradise Park loop. I hiked it
counter-clockwise, through a mixture of evergreen forests and meadows. The alpine country here is gorgeous, even in
the fog. That damp fog gave me a chill,
so I only took one short break along here.
I
circled back to the Pacific Crest Trail and passed another waterfall before
closing the loop. As nice as the hike
had been to that point, the return hike was even better. By the time I reached the Zigzag Overlook the
clouds around the summit were beginning to break up. After a mile of forest hiking, I broke out
into the alpine and was greeted with a clear view of Mount Hood. It was a spectacular finale to a great hike.
I
enjoyed those views for a bit before returning to Timberline Lodge. Christy had a pleasant mountain bike ride to
Trillium Lake. She had finished well
ahead of me, so she’d spent a couple of hours exploring the lodge and drinking
wine in one of the bars. I met her in
the parking lot and we drove back over to Trillium Lake so I could see the view
of Mount Hood from there. Then we headed
back to Lost Lake.
I
had picked the Lost Lake campground because Lost Lake is situated on the northwest
side of Mount Hood. That would be the
perfect angle to capture alpenglow on Mount Hood at sunset. It had been cloudy our first two nights, but
I was hopeful that the improving conditions would make for a nice light show on
our last night. After cooking and eating
dinner at our campsite we drove down to the lake. A few renegade clouds had drifted over the
summit, but they cleared out just in time.
The alpenglow happened just the way I’d pictured it. Unfortunately, it was breezy enough that
there wasn’t a reflection of the mountain in the water, but I’m not
complaining. Lost Lake is allegedly the
most photographed lake in Oregon, and I believe it.
Wednesday
was mostly a travel day. We had to be in
Anacortes, Washington by 7:30 to catch a ferry to Friday Harbor in the San Juan
Islands. I didn’t want to spend the
entire day in the car though. We
considered a number of options for short hikes.
The one I really wanted to do was in Mount St. Helens National Volcanic
Monument, but I didn’t think we would have enough time for it. Ultimately I decided to do an early morning
hike right from the campground. It was
only a couple of miles up to Lost Lake Butte, which promised more views of
Mount Hood and Mount Adams. By doing it
early, I could let Christy sleep in and cook her breakfast before we packed up.
I
got up at first light and headed out.
The hike was uphill in deep forest the entire way. It was a hearty climb, which was a good way
to start the day. The rocky summit has
really nice views of Mount Hood, and from one spot you can just make out Mount
Adams. Some people would argue that the
view of Mount Hood isn’t really any better from there than it is from the
lakeshore, and they might have a point.
Despite this, I enjoyed the hike, which I had entirely to myself. It was great to accomplish something before
we spent the rest of the day in the car.
It
was late morning when we headed out. We
still had plenty of time to get to Anacortes for the ferry. In fact, if our timing was good, we’d make it
through Seattle before rush hour. The
rational route from Hood River, Oregon to Anacortes, Washington is to take I-84
to Portland and then I-5 north through Seattle.
That sounded boring to me.
Another option was to drive around the east side of the cascades and
bypass Seattle altogether. That was
somewhat appealing, but would cover a lot of territory we had already traveled. Instead, I came up with a third idea that
wasn’t really recommended by Google Maps.
We could drive north from Hood River on back roads and go right past
Mount Adams – another Cascade volcano, and around Mount St. Helens. That route would also take us near Mount
Rainier. We wouldn’t do any hiking, but
it would be a scenic, adventurous drive.
This
was not one of my better ideas.
Getting
to Anacortes by 7:30 was critical, as that was the last ferry of the day. We were booked on a guided kayaking tour in
the San Juan Islands that started the next morning. We’d already paid for it, and we certainly
didn’t want to miss it! The morning
ferries were all booked, so if we missed the ferry that evening we would be in
jeopardy of missing out on the kayaking, and wasting a lot of money. If that happened, our only hope would be to
walk on the early morning ferry and then hitch a ride across San Juan Island to
Roche Harbor. I don’t need that kind of
stress in my life.
I
analyzed the route thoroughly, and concluded that going the back way would
still get us to Anacortes at least an hour early. Let’s do it!
It
started out well enough. The drive was
scenic, and we stopped for a picnic at an overlook with a great view of Mount
Adams. It was after lunch when
everything went sideways. We reached a
critical junction and found our road ahead closed due to snow. Snow.
In mid-July. This put us in a bit
of a situation. I studied the map and
quickly realized that we had only one option.
We’d have to drive down through Cougar, south of Mount St. Helens, and
hit I-5 a short distance north of the Oregon border. Then we’d follow I-5 north through Seattle,
which we would hit right at rush hour.
We
had no choice. Once we changed routes
our estimated arrival time on Google Maps moved back an hour. If that held up we’d be ok, but we no longer
had any margin for error. And we still
had to worry about rush hour traffic in Seattle.
I
drove very fast down a narrow, winding road.
We passed three waterfalls on the Lewis River. This was painful, as the hikes to them are
short, but we definitely didn’t have time to stop. We also passed Ape Cave, which is a lava tube
on the south side of Mount St. Helens.
We had hiked part of it (the easy part) on our first visit to Washington
State years ago.
We
raced west to I-5 and gained some time by driving way too fast. Traffic on I-5 was too heavy for much
speeding though, and it really went to hell in Tacoma. After several traffic jams there, we were
really getting worried. By the time we
passed the Seattle airport Google Maps showed that both I-5 and I-405 (which
runs parallel to I-5 but farther east) were parking lots. Not good.
Unfortunately there are no other realistic options. I-405 looked a little better, so we went that
way. It has a commuter lane, and we
qualified, which kept us moving. The
rest of the highway was at a standstill.
At some point the commuter lane became a toll lane. I knew it would be expensive, but we had no
choice. We stayed in the toll lane and
continued north. We finally escaped
Seattle traffic and rolled into the ferry terminal in Anacortes just in
time. Whoo!
I
fully expected those toll lanes to cost us an arm and a leg, but Avis never
sent me a bill. That day could have been a potential fiasco, all because of one
bad decision (and a closed road), but somehow we came out of it unscathed.
Back to Oregon.
Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports
Please remember to Leave No Trace!