Tag Archives: Elk Meadows and Sahalie Falls

Jul20

July 4th at Elk Meadows

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Monday, 04-July-2022

Let’s see… it’s been just about two months since my last excursion to Elk Meadows. Not too bad! Means I’m finally branching out, at least a little bit, right? Maybe?

Ehh, you know what? It’s all good – I love Elk Meadows, and it’s a perfect hike for me. A nice drive, a simple walk, and beautiful views that never fail to stun the senses and alight the mind. Just… yeah. Wait ’till you see these.

So July 4th was a bit weird this year… The world isn’t doing super great, if we’re being candid, and I know a lot of folks are skipping July 4th due to a distinct lack of independence and freedom… But you know what? It’s a day off work, and I don’t usually go in for big celebrations or fireworks anymore anyways.

I mean… don’t get me wrong, I do miss fireworks, but… After so many years curled up with Ollie in the closet comforting her against the explosions and scary sky noises I’ve kinda grown accustomed to not going out. Combine that with the whole pandemic and everything and… yeah. I’m okay with laying low and going for a hike instead.

I met up with my friend Lexi, quite spontaneously as it turns out. She’s been in the States for quite a while, but somehow her Australian origins meant that she’d forgotten that the 4th is actually a holiday… dangers of working in Academia, I guess? People don’t tell you that you don’t need to go into the lab that day, when there isn’t really a scheduled work schedule?

Anyways. We were texting as I ate my brunch, and made a spur of the moment decision for her to join in, and for us to get some miles under our boots together.



It was an absolutely gorgeous day – with just a bit of clouds scraping over Mt. Hood as we ascended up toward the meadow. Lots of stops for photo ops, and lots of good time chatting and enjoying the weather and good company.

We even saw a snake, and tons of tadpoles!

Yeah. Hike. Hard to type a story about it… we explored, walked around, visited my favorite campsite and lounged at the shelter for a bit. Then hiked down, enjoyed more views and photo ops… and even hit up the Timberline Lodge on the way back into Portland!




Since Timberline didn’t have quite a… extensive selection in terms of food (in short – COVID’s hit them hard, and all they had were a few appetizers), so instead I headed back home for dinner. Dropped Lexi off in Portland, said goodnight, and then braced myself to brave the July 4th traffic on the way home.

Because, you see dear reader, I have the benefit of hindsight to know that the highway would be jammed due to the fireworks. Not because of people driving… no. No, that would make sense! Instead, the highway had become a parking lot for people watching the fireworks on the river.

Which… seems… slightly unsafe, to me, but then again I am very prissy about “not parking on highways” and “using roads to drive on”.

So I got home, thankfully no worse for wear, and made tortellini. It was delicious.

Jun7

My return to Mt. Hood, and a picnic below Elk Meadows!

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Sunday, 08-May-2022


Don’t worry, this all happened after my Mother’s Day celebration!

It’s been a while since I’ve had a good reason to pull out all the stops and have a fancy picnic. I mean… yes. I know that I’m worth it, and that I deserve having awesome picnic, but… you know, it just seems off to do it for myself. Picnics need to be shared for them to be really worth it.

I had been chatting with Ash for a while, and we finally found a time that worked for both of us to meet up for a nice hike in the woods. And since it would be right around lunch time… I offered to pack us a lunch. Let me tell you – when I offer to pack a lunch, I offer to pack a lunch.

What did we have in store?

Well. Sit yourself down and let me brag:
– Fresh baguette, picked up earlier that day
– Brie cheese
– Apples, two variety of sweet & crispy
– Prosciutto
– Aged & smoked Gruyere
– A bottle of wine, with glasses and a corkscrew (we didn’t end up having any of this… but I get credit for schlepping it on a hike)
– A bar of dark chocolate
– A thermos of hot cocoa… a home-made mix of light and dark chocolate, melted into steamed milk

Yyuppp. I threw down.



The rest of the adventure? I mean, it was a hike, yeah? I got to the trailhead early, took some time to read my book, and then we headed in. We went in the Elk Meadows trail (Which was completely lost in the snow… so we ended up tracking on GPS as best we could), and stopped for lunch at the Newton Creek trail junction.

We ate, we chatted, and we headed back. Grabbed a secondary meal at the Timberline Lodge, and then I headed back into Portland.

A good day out in the woods!

Dec23

A visit weekend full of adventures – Adventures on Mt. Hood

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Wednesday, 10-Nov-2021 through Monday, 15-Nov-2021

My friends came to visit!

Two weekends in a row… I’m the most social of all the social butterflies, it seems!

And honestly, I’m so thankful for it. 2021 was, for mas as for everyone, a challenging year. It’d been a year of huge personal growth, and excellent introspection, but at my core I’m still a social creature. Self-reflection is only a part of the growth cycle… sharing those insights, and getting other people’s input, is just as important to someone’s growth.

So when Daniel and Erin asked if they could come to visit the weekend after Dillon and Liz’s wedding… well, I couldn’t say yes fast enough!


Saturday, 13-Nov-2021


After the day of hiking in the rain, we were pretty excited for a slightly drier walk in the woods on Saturday. Not that there’s anything wrong with hiking in the rain… but… you know. Warmer. Drier. Less sticky during the drive home.

With the weather looking a bit gloomy again in the gorge, but with clear skies to the East of Mt. Hood, our destination was obvious… One of my favorite hikes of the last few years, Elk Meadows!


It was a bit weird, to be honest, thinking of sharing this hike with friends. I’d done it some many times solo that it felt strange to be chatting as we walked… I think the last time I hiked it with someone else was back in June or July of 2020 when I’d first met Laurel.

But, as with everything else this weekend, the change was glorious and hugely appreciated. I love getting to share my passions with other people, and this was definitely no exception – hearing their exclamations as we turned a bend and Mt. Hood came into view for the first time was amazing, and helped me relive the joy of my own first few times seeing the views.

Breakfast bagels were delicious, the drive was beautiful, the trail was amazing, the river crossings were entertaining, and the meadow itself was just as welcoming as I’ve always found it to be.



The wildlife was almost more welcoming than I’d come to expect. The Grey Jay’s of Mt. Hood and I have come to know each other pretty well, but I wasn’t sure what their opinion of Daniel and Erin would be…

Turns out, I didn’t have to worry one iota – the Jay’s absolutely adored them both, and we ended up spending… ohh, probably an hour? Doing photoshoots and handing out offerings of peanuts to the tiny little buggers. it was awesome, cute, and we even got to watch Daniel somehow survive a bird landing on his head!

It was still pretty early in the day after our wildlife photo session, and we were all feeling pretty energetic with the sun high and the breeze warm. A quick tour of the meadow didn’t burn out our remaining energy, so upward and onward we went onto the Bluegrass trail.

It’d been a while since I’d explored the Bluegrass ridge, and I was optimistic that we’d be able to get some good views of the various cascade volcanoes from the top… the day was clear, after all, and the morning had burned off most of the remaining clouds.

It was cold, and windy, and rather challenging terrain as we explored. With friends though, it’s always a bit easier and we made great progress as the day went on. The views didn’t quite ever materialize, and the day did start getting quite a bit colder as it went on… so we took the main trail back in short order, finding ourselves back on the road just a bit before sunset.

Sunset didn’t see us on the road home, though… instead, we made our way up to the Timberline lodge!

Bringing my Mom out to the lodge for brunch had reminded me just how amazing the Timberline Lodge was… and having gone probably an entire year without visiting their restaurant had left me with enough of a craving that a single meal couldn’t be expected to quench it.

There wasn’t too much on the menu at the Ram’s Head, though, and we ended up going fairly simple – I got an amazing tomato soup for myself! It ended up being quite a bit more filling than expected, and easily tided us over until we got back into town.