Elk Meadows

Elk Meadows and Mt. Hood

Elk Meadows is a very popular Mt. Hood area hike for both day trippers and backpackers. It's just far enough away from the bustle of Government Camp to be quiet, in the Mt. Hood Wilderness area, on the southeast side. The four hour hike took us through a mature sub-alpine conifer forest, crossed two big streams and about a dozen small creeks. After 2.5 miles we reached the meadows, where we had lunch and walked the perimeter trail and then returned the way we came. This trek gains about 1,200 ft over the 6 miles, so it's a good workout at 5,000 to 5,450 ft elevation. Ken, Sharon, and I made the trek on 7/26/2014. July  is the peak wildflower bloom here, and we were rewarded with a good show. A nice bonus for us were two notable waterfalls located nearby: Sahalie and Umbrella Falls. The word Sahalie is Chinook for high or sky, so there are several waterfalls in both Oregon and Washington with the name.

     

Umbrella Falls was a great way to polish off the hike (on right, above). It created a cool breeze as it cascaded down the hill and I really enjoyed sticking my hot, tired feet into the cold water for a bit. From here we made the 10 mile drive to Government Camp, where we dined at the Mt. Hood Brewpub, a favorite watering hole of ours.

We captured about 20 interesting wildflowers in bloom. The link below will take you to those. As always, there were many other familiar ones that I did not capture this time, such as paintbrush, queen's cup, and lupine.

Pink Monkeyflower - Mimulus lewisii

We spotted both pink and yellow monkeyflowers growing abundantly at the Newton Creek crossing, on the way to the meadows. This colorful pink Monkeyflower was first noted by Meriwether Lewis on August 12, 1805 in Montana. It was later named after him and is also called Lewis' Monkeyflower.

See the rest of the wildflowers

See more hike photos

Ken's Oregon Conifers web site