Mosier Plateau, Memaloose Hills, and Rowena Plateau Wildflower hike 17 April 2015

Three hikes, all within a short distance of each other...about 9 miles.  Next time:  start at Rowena Crest viewpoint and hike Tom McCall preserve first, then the others.  That hike gains 1100 ft in a little over 3 miles.  The hikes I did were not difficult.  Only the Memaloose hike had some gain, but it was short.  Nice views!

Mosier Plateau offered a waterfall and nice gorge views.  Standard flowers.  Memaloose trailed through oak forests with lots of flowers, even paintbrush.  The terrain was quite varied so it made a nice little hike. You could go up two hills for views of Hood and Adams and the Columbia River.

I also stopped at an old barn and house that is now a bat house.  This is public land but you have to step over barbed wire to get to it.

Rowena Plateau had fewer flowers, but interesting rock canyons and vertical gorge overlooks.  I could see out to the hikes from previous weeks.

This took all day because of my picture taking.  One could go faster and get Tom McCall in as well.  Started out at 6a.

map of Mosier Plateau
map of Memaloose Hills
map of McClure Bat House (and drive to Rowena - oops)
map of Rowena Plateau

Mosier Plateau 

falls at Mosier Plateau

Balsamroot

looking southwest

ponderosa pine on the plateau - this is/was private land at one time

Pioneer cemetery at the start of the trail

Memaloose Hills

flowers in an oak forest (no poison oak)

beautiful views from Chatham Hill

Paintbrush too!

lots of flowers near a spring

Mt Hood

McClure Bat House


the barn

now a home for b

Camas in the field nearby

Rowena Plateau

canyon

pond

balsamroot and lupines

lunch spot

McCall Mtn

Columbia River with Rowena below

Lyle Cherry Orchard 11 April 2015

Part 2 of the day...LCO isn't far from Crawford Oaks, so we thought we would get in two different hikes.  This hike starts about 1.5 miles east of Lyle just east of a tunnel.  You park in a pull out on the north side of the Hwy.  The hike climbs for about a mile up the side of the gorge then travels through oak forest to a turn around in an ancient cherry orchard (though we only saw a couple very old trees).  The best part of the hike happens before leaving the cliffs.  Turning back before entering the oak forest would make a satisfactory though shorter hike.  The views of the gorge are the best there are because you are totally exposed hiking up the cliff.  However, there is a ton of POISON OAK - so much that I will probably not return.  There was more diversity in the flower population too.  Also this day we saw two snakes (one rattlesnake - which rattled), a wild turkey, a fox, heard lots of meadowlarks and other birds - more wildlife than we usually see!
4.7 miles, 1000ft gain.
map

Heading up

delphinium

caterpillar on a stick! "Fiddleneck"

looking east

lunch spot

looking down on the lunch spot

beautiful trail flowers

ancient cherry tree

enjoy your hike!!!

Crawford Oaks 10 April 2015

Crawford Oaks is a new park, part of the Columbia Hills State Park.  Now the trails are marked and well etched in the fields so you don't get off on user trails easily.  There is even a new parking lot up at the ranch and down my the Hwy, both have restrooms.  We hiked the loop without the connector.  It was 5.2 miles 700 ft gain.  Next year I would like to enter via the Hwy road to see the waterfall and take the side trip west of the barns to see the rusted out car in the flowers.
map

the old fence from ranch days

Balsamroot

Columbia River and Mt Hood

Phlox and Balsamroot

Lupine

water feature

looking back to the ranch

Dog Mountain 3 April 2015

Columbia Hills State Park, specifically Crawford Oaks, was my planned destination (rain predicted everywhere but eastern gorge), but I wearied of driving and went to Dog Mtn instead.  I should have kept going, because later I heard that the flowers are peaking at Crawford Oaks and it will be a week before I can get back again.  Well, on Dog Mtn all the tiny wildflowers were putting on the show.  Lots of pretty fairy slippers and filliaries. You had to be looking though, because they are small.  The big lupine and balsamroot were just getting going.
Hard hike with steep elevation gain all in 3 miles.
7 miles 2800 ft gain
Map

on the upper meadow looking west, Wind Mountain

fairy slippers

bleeding hearts

looking east

balsamroot

lunch spot over the Columbia River

paintbrush

balsamroot

flowering current