Bird Creek Meadows

Last Saturday, we had the most awesome day hiking the trails at Bird Creek Meadows. This link is cool, it allows you to click on the cameras to see the view at that spot. Our Nordic Club gang met up in Husum, and headed out to Trout Lake, past the Sno-Parks, through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest into Yakama Reservation lands. It was a hot day back at Columbia River level, but a hike at elevation (6,000 ft) was the ticket to escape the heat.

The wildflowers were blooming like crazy. We drove through a forest of Bear Grass on the way up, both sides of the road full of the interesting flowered stalks that bloom every 5-7 years. How lucky was THAT? Native Americans use the grassy leaves for basket weaving.

We parked at the picnic area, got our Yakama day use passes, covered ourselves with bug spray and sunscreen and headed up the trail. It wasn't long before we started seeing lupines, paintbrush, alpine asters, buttercups, false solomon's seal, subalpine mariposa lilies, and much much more. The gang regrouped for a photo op at the main meadow with the Mt. Adams backdrop, which you can see at the ONC website, did couples shots in front of the nearby waterfall, then we hiked up to the Hellroaring Creek viewpoint for our lunch stop. I stayed far away from the ledge. I don't like ledges.Brindle found a shady spot for her break.

It looked like it was going to storm, but nothing came of the dark clouds.

I could have sat there forever. You could almost reach out and touch Mt Adams. You could see the glacier really well with the binoculars, and hear the roaring of the creek so very far away as if it were right next to you. If you can't quite see it in the first photo, right of center. The second shot is a closeup of it.

We looped back to the parking area down a little steeper, rockier trail than we had come up. I'm glad we did it in the direction we did. Brindle is following Cindy down the trail. Brindle knows when she's 'heading for the barn' and likes to lead the way.

The mossies got really bad as we approached the cars, so we didn't dally. A little bit of rain finally came out of the dark clouds as we headed down the dusty gravel road, enough to wash the car off a little bit and so the windshield wipers wouldn't scratch the windshield! The end of hike festivities were moved to Jan and Fred's in Husum, and included champagne to celebrate Jan and Fred's 12th anniversary and Skip's 60 something birthday. Another great day in the neighborhood.

There are lots more cool photos in our nordic club album. Check them out!