Crawford Oaks State Park 23 Mar 2016

Only a few flowers were displaying their colors. However, the park took on an entirely new look and many tiny flowers were blooming. It was a cool, windy, cloudy day but oh so good to be outside with a good friend!

map

balsamroot

lupine

Dalles Mountain Ranch

Miner's Lettuce

Ballhead waterleaf

oaks

Woodland Star

Columbia River

sink 

Mt Hood was playing peek-a-boo

Horsethief Butte

Tulips at Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm 22 Mar 2016

Beautiful afternoon...Cheryl visiting - we dashed over to experience the afternoon light.  Tulips were 25% in bloom. Very muddy :-/

Catherine Creek 18 March 2016

Sunshine beckoned. I wanted to go somewhere where I would really be in the sun. The choices in March are the beach, eastern Oregon, and the eastern gorge. I hadn't been to the gorge in awhile and I knew the flowers were starting so I headed to a new spot, for me, Catherine Creek. It is a relatively new spot for hikers in general. I had seen online that there were many ways to approach the hike, but I did not have a firm map. So I struck out and followed the gps on my phone and a good footpath to the top of Tracy Hill. Unfortunately my phone didn't indicate where the trail I was on ended up so I turned around and headed down cross country on a very faint road. I figured that if I sort of followed the road (It was marked on my phone but was not very evident on land) I could get down again without running into some drop off. Eventually I did find a trail again and rejoined the trail I had walked up. I still had time so I hiked over to the trail that goes to the Indian Pits and rock walls, just below Rowland Wall. I think that there is a way to hike over to Coyote wall and and back to Catherine Creek. There were tons of cars parked at the trail head and I saw only a few people on the trail so obviously there are lots of trail choices.
More to explore next time!  Lots of small flowers were blooming. The balsamroot and lupines are not ready yet, but there were lots of grass widows and yellow lilies. The sun was a little weak because of high clouds, but it was still so nice to be outside rain-free!
about 7.1 mi 1600 ft gain (about) (gps stopped on tracking apps!)
map

Catherine Creek

Catherine Creek Arch

grass widows

lots of views of Mt Hood

Shooting star

wide open spaces

cattle pond on Tracy Hill

the basalt looks liquid

Columbia River

one lone Balsamroot

PNW Indian created rock walls

A rock-rimmed pit created by the PNW Indians

looking up at Rowland Wall