Tag Archives: alpine meadows

Aug20

The flowers of Zermatt

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Thursday, 18-July-2024, through Wednesday, 24-July-2024


Astute readers may have noticed a peculiarity in my last few posts.

They lack flowers.

I do enjoy photographing flowers – they’re colorful, they’re pretty, and they generally have interesting little details that make them fun to look at up close and magnified. It’s a habit I picked up years and years ago, when I would do solo hikes and want to bring back pictures that a partner could use as references for her art… but now, I continue searching them out because they simply make me exceptionally happy. Both in the moment, and when reviewing photos later on and seeing those that come out just right.


Zermatt has tons of flowers – and I was fortunate enough to arrive just in time for the alpine blooms throughout the valley! Likely made even more spectacular due to my adventures, traversing between different elevations, allowing me the opportunity to see different blooming strata.

In short – I got one or two photos that I’m extremely proud of. Please – sit back, relax, and enjoy what I bring to you, my dearest readers, from the mountains of the Swiss alps. In, on, and around the beautiful town of Zermatt.

Aug25

Another Mt. Hood Hike – McNeil Point

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Another Mt. Hood Hike – McNeil Point

A heavier hike up Mt. Hood

Thursday, 27-July-2017

 

I’ve been getting a lot stronger recently.  Running in the city, climbing at the gym, lifting weights again, and generally being more active has been boosting me up pretty well.  Sarah’s always been a much stronger hiker, so she’d been itching to head up something heavier…

 

Something heavier happened.  We hiked McNeil Point – a hike that Sarah had been telling me about since we first met.  It’s a gorgeous hike, but in the middle of summer it becomes exceptionally amazing, thanks to the huge alpine meadows full of wildflowers.  Sort of like Dog Mountain… If you look closely, you’ll notice that “alpine meadows full of wildflowers” is a theme to hikes that Sarah recommends.  A theme that I’m behind 100%.

 

The vital statistics of the hike are:

Distance: 10.5 miles

Elevation gain: 2200 ft, starting at 3900ft

Terrain: Pretty normal for this type of hiking

 

We packed up the car in Portland, and headed toward the mountain bright and early.  Our plan was to dodge the morning traffic, but also to make sure that we’d have enough time to be able to take it easy and enjoy a slow and steady hiking pace.  Which we did.

The hike itself was beautiful – the weather really cooperated with gorgeous skies and excellent views the whole way up.  We even got the chance to see some glacial tarns; small alpine ponds with tons of frogs and other interesting wildlife in them.

We took our lunch, as well as a nap, at McNeil Point itself.  We rested in the small stone hut there, enjoying the mountain air and letting Ollie run and play for a bit before heading back down.  There’s another trail that leads up a bit higher, but we held off on ascending any further… we were already pretty tired, and still had the whole descent to do.

 

What else…? Not much, honestly.  The nap was invigorating, and the descent was just as beautiful as the ascent.  Tiring, but beautiful.  And afterward, we got to have chili cheese dogs at the house in Hood River!