Mountain adventure

To my hubby it was all about getting the jeep off road. But for me it was about getting into the back country of the Cascade mountains on those old logging roads and experiencing the forest and the trees for just a few hours at the very least.
Really this trip is pretty much in our backyard, just 55 miles up the canyon and you are there. The destination was Skyline Road as it is called.  Improved, but not heavily traveled especially during the week.  It connects to several forest service or old logging roads in the area, and if you have a map, traversing them can be quite an adventure. This area is only open mid June thru mid October as it is deep in snow the rest of the year.

Once off Skyline road, this is why you need a map. Do you go this way?

Or that way? 

The roads all look pretty much the same. and what I snapped pics of were the good roads! Often you drive thru dry creek beds, washed out sections and over fallen trees.

 

I was a little disappointed, hoping to see more wildflowers, but it is the end of August, mid July to mid August probably would have been spectacular for wildflower meadows. But I did find some bright red berries and these tiny yellow posies everywhere. There was lots of Queen Anne lace, and a little leftover bear grass too.

Most of the lakes up there you have to hike into, but there were lots of little streams and then a surprise here and there of bigger ones

 

  The photo opp of this row of birch trees with a Douglas fir seedling (below)

was too hard to resist. It was as if they were all reaching for the sun. We stopped here for lunch, all you could hear was the creek and the birds. I am sure we had some other critters wondering what we were doing invading there pristine home.

Along Skyline road on the way back home we stopped for one more breath of this lovely mountain air and to appreciate this wonderful and so beautiful part of Oregon that we call home