White River Canyon
Journal entry February 12 2005, 10:05 AM, Timberline Lodge Parking Lot, Mt. Hood Oregon. Leading a snow shoe trip to Mt. Hood we drove up to the highest altitude we could get to by road (4950 feet) and still did not find significant snow. We decide to hike around the mountain and drop down onto the Pacific Crest Trail for a bit.
Above we climb out of the van, notice the dry snowless parking lot? Below a picture of Mt. Hood from the Timberline Lodge lot.
Hiking over to the PCT here is a picture looking South toward Mt. Jefferson.
Picking our way down into a valley east of Timberline (where there is some snow) we come across the Mt. Hood trail.
The Mt. Hood Trail crosses the PCT and comes out above White River Canyon. It's dry, dusty and blustery. A normal February would have found this area deep in snow.
Below, some folks in our group ponder the scenery.
Dropping down the sandy slopes the group comes onto a stand of trees that have held the soil in place through centuries of snow. We're still a few hundred feet above the canyon and the drop off in the foreground is dangerously steep.
We don't get too close to the edge of the crumbling cliffs. Here we stop to enjoy some sunshine..
It's a hard life for many trees in this wind swept canyon.
Here is the floor of the canyon looking back up at Hood.
