Clark's Oregon Wildflower Blog: Vista Ridge and Eden Park

North Side of Mt. Hood from Vista Ridge

As I said in my last post, those of us in the hot August valleys head for the coast or the mountains for summer outdoor activities. There are so many choices - sometimes it's like putting two bowls of food in front of a cat and watching it try to decide. For me, this problem is mostly solved because, a) I don't like cat food, and b) most of the remaining wildflowers are growing up at the timberline level now.

There are several noteworthy late summer flower hikes listed in the guidebooks and Vista Ridge is one of them. This is one of those hikes that really tests your level of commitment to the cause - it's about a three hour drive from my home just to get there and the last 25 miles are on really narrow roads, kind of like the bike lanes on the Banks-Vernonia rail-trail. But if you are not bothered by steep drop-offs and no guard rails, then it's a scenic drive!

Three of my retired hiking buddies and I headed up to Vista Ridge, on the north side on Mt. Hood last Friday for a look. The weather was cloudy with marine air as we left Hillsboro at 7:30 am. As we headed east the cloud layer broke up as forcasted, and soon we were in bright sunlight. As a bonus, we got to see some of the 2014 Hood-to-Coast runners coming down the mountain on Highway 26 as we made our way up. They were still pretty fresh looking at this point, probably on their first of three segments. Once we turned off the highway onto Lolo Pass road, there were no runners; in fact we saw only two other vehicles. At about 10:30 am we arrived at the trailhead - two other cars were parked there and one arrived as we put on our boots!

In a word, our hike was great. We actually combined two hikes, the Vista Ridge trail 626 (4.8 miles) and the Eden Park trail 600H (3.2 miles), so it was an out and back with a loop at the far end. The two youngsters in the group, Ken and Mike, took a third hike out to Elk Cove, adding another 2.5 miles to their trek.

We started out at 4,600 ft. elevation and reached 5,800 ft. on the Eden Park loop. To get back to the Vista Ridge trail, we traveled a short distance on the Timberline Trail, which circles the entire mountain for 40 miles. Our trek initially took us through a huge 6,000 acre burn area from 2011 (known as the Dollar Lake fire). The lightning-caused fire is part of the natural cycle of northwest forests, but it was truly an amazing sight to see as we walked through it.

We spotted Fireweed, Beargrass, and Pearly Everlasting coming up as the first native plants. We also saw a few 2 - 3 inch high conifers poking up here and there, through the charred ground. The cycle really does work!

In some areas, the fire turned away and small patches of the green, former forest remained as sort of a deja-vu monument to the fickle nature of fires. Here we found mature conifers, ripe huckleberries, and bright red Sitka Mountain Ash berries. We eagerly lunched at the Eden Park trail junction, where the plant life was subalpine.

Flower-wise, we spotted many familiar faces, such as Lupine, Aster, Groundsel, and Paintbrush. There were several new ones for me as well as fresh editions just blooming. A few of the highlights are shown below. Hover your mouse to see the names and follow this link for the entire set.