Latourell Falls

We have been wanting to hike the gorge for a while now. Last year it was on fire and there was no hiking. Since then many of the trails have been closed, but recently they have opened up some of them. The trail to Latourell Falls was one of them.

The basalt rock formations towards the bottom were interesting

There was so much to see on this hike. The trail was nice. We went during the week and got there early so there was no problem with parking or crowds. My trail app said it was a 2 mile hike but by the time we finished all the scenic lookouts and wandered around it was more like 3.5. It was classified as a moderate hike. It had nice views of the Columbia River as you hike up to the top but my phone camera pictures weren't very good, you'll just have to believe me.


      

      

We also went on another hike that day to another Bridal Veil Falls. It seems like that is a popular name for a water fall. The hike to this falls is pretty easy, only .5 miles. Apparently the bridge is a popular wedding photo place. There is a small loop you can hike nearby and I did get a picture of the Columbia River.

   

Yosemite

The last blog was the beginning of April and here it is almost June. So it's time to catch you all up to what we've been doing. Since I have snippets of time to write, the updates will be in small blogs. First one:

It's been thirty plus years since I've been to Yosemite, when my oldest was just a baby. Mr UAW was there a few years ago during Thanksgiving break, in the snow, with everyone else. (I had to work) He went with family, it was cold and icy and crowded. So fast forward to 2018, since we were going to CA at the end of April, we decided to take a vacation from vacation and visit Yosemite for the day. This place never ceases to amaze. We purposely chose to go at the end of April, winter was gone, it was before the summer crowds, and hopefully we would see some dogwood bloom-alas we were too early to see any blooms. However, there were no crowds and the weather was great. Knowing that we were going to be there just for the day, we decided to not go on any long destination hikes. We wanted to see more than just one or two things. And we thought since we weren't going on any long hikes and hanging around the valley floor that we wouldn't put on many miles. Boy were we wrong. We saw many things, Yosemite Falls, wandering around the valley floor, hiking to Mirror Lake-catching the view of half dome from Mirror Lake, Bridal Veil Falls, and stopping for lunch and dinner at various venues. My milage app on my phone said we did 10.4 miles that day.

Yosemite Falls 

Church from valley floor

On our way to Mirror Lake

By Mirror Lake

Bridal Veil Falls



Someone forgot their sunscreen!

Dirty Hands...Happy Heart

I recently read an article about how dirt can make you happy. Apparently there are microbes in our soil that may stimulate serotonin production, which makes you relaxed and happier. Gardeners inhale the microbes or can get them thru topical contact. No wonder why I like gardening so much.

Getting my dose of soil microbes 

Spring is starting here in the pacific northwest. There are days that are beautiful, warm, sunny, close to 65 degrees. Then there are days that are cold, rainy, hailing, windy and only get up to 42 degrees-however the sun manages to appear every day. At least it's not the same as the cold of winter, with it's snow, ice rain, and temperatures that didn't make it above freezing. (I have to say that even in winter we saw the sun almost every day.)

Daffodils survived the Feb snow!

But back to spring...spring where I came from in CA was short-lived. It seemed that before you knew it summer was there. Knowing that spring was short and summer was soon to come, one could start planting gardens and flowers-and they would survive. The last frost date was March 15. Things happened so fast there.

Here the last frost date is closer to the end of April or even the beginning of May in some places. And it shows in the type of weather we have. It truly is spring. It's been about 48 years since I've experienced a lasting spring and I'm really enjoying it. The daffodils bloom and last for months. All the spring bulbs erupt from their winter hiding places and last for quite some time. Trees flower and the blooms last for weeks. It's interesting to go outside each day and notice the small changes that happen in the plant kingdom. Since this is our first spring here we are constantly surprised by the bulbs that come up. I did not plant them and are surprised by their appearance, especially when I put a pot on top of one of them and it comes up around the pot. It does take some rethinking and relearning on my part to know when to plant things here. I have to curb the urge to plant summer vegetables. But outside I can plant the cooler weather crops like peas, lettuce, broccoli, brussel sprouts, nasturtiums. Inside I've started some summer vegetables: pumpkins, gourds, basil, butternut squash. Other things I've tried to start haven't worked out so well so I'll have to buy them from the nursery. The vegetable garden will have to be a different blog post.

The bulb garden Z and I planted in the fall is starting to bloom. The bulbs are beautiful and they will spread as the years go on. We will probably plant more bulbs too. I've also sowed some wildflower seeds there too so that as the bulbs fade maybe we will have some summer flowers coming up too.

The bulb planters enjoying their garden 

Crocus bulbs

Fritillaria 

Glory of the Snow

    

                 

Tulips 

Siberian Squill 

 

Grape Hyacinths 

      
Some of the many daffodils

The front yard is full of bulbs. It was one of the things that attracted me to this house. It looks like an old english garden. And I've added to it with some planters. When it rains the plants wear their water droplets like jewels that they are showing off to the world.
         

      

Here are some of the other flowers that are blooming right now. I'm not sure of all of their names.
There are rhododendrons, bleeding hearts, daffodils, camellias, lung wort, and I'm not sure what the yellow or the purple flowers are at the end.

         

      


I also have a weeping cherry tree. I've noticed that some of these trees do not bloom, I guess there are male and female trees. At first I thought I wanted to get rid of it, it was such a funny shaped tree, but I guess this is the way they are supposed to look. For the longest time I just called it an umbrella tree. The trunks can get really round and fat and the tree can stay short and squat. It's a new one to me.
       

So many pictures! And only part of the yard is in bloom. I do have 28 rose bushes and more flowers to bloom.  I'll have to post more pictures later.

Mt Tabor

This month we took a short trip to a local park, Mt Tabor. It's a dormant cinder cone of the Boring Lava Field. It is 636 feet in elevation. This lava field, with its network of cinder cones and small shield volcanoes, extends from Boring, Oregon to southwest Washington. It has been extinct for over 300,000 years. The park is located in southeast Portland. Apparently there are other cinder cones from this field within the city of Portland: Rocky Butte, Powell Butte, and Kelly Butte. We've been to Powell Butte. From 1894-1911 the reservoirs were built here to distribute water.

The hike was pretty easy for us. Three different trails are marked, green, red and blue. There are smaller connecting trails too. We stuck to the red and blue trails. The green trail seemed to just go around the outside of the park and had a road along side of it most of the way. We started out mid morning and finished just after lunch. That was with look out stops and a snack break along the way.



This is one of the pump houses, the steps identify this building as Reservoir No 5 built in 1911. Most of the building reminded me of the early 1900's. And there were lamp posts that looked older too. They reminded me of the lamp post that I imaged as I read the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia.

Older lamp post in the back ground 

The west side of the park had great views of the city of Portland.

There is a cut-away of the cinder cone near the parking lot. Apparently the part that was cut away was used to pave the nearby parking lot. 

We had fun exploring this area. Maybe we will bring the grandkids here for a walk to "get the wiggles out". There is a nice amphitheater here with a tree perfect for a picture, only I need to photoshop the chain link fence out of the frame.