We enjoyed light winds and a high temperature of 60 degrees at Columbia Hills Historic State Park. We hiked from the Crawford Oaks trailhead on the Access Road to do our favorite loop of the Vista Loop and Military Road trails in search of early wildflowers and birds.
Eightmile Creek was running high so a lot of water was going over Eightmile Falls. All the water also meant that the crossing of the Eightmile Creek ford was challenging. The ford used to have large stepping stones on the upstream side. Someone has dragged oak tree limbs into the creek, including on top of the stepping stones. The limbs are backing up the water level by an inch or two over the stepping stones. Some of our group decided just to walk through the water which did not go over our boot tops rather than picking our way across the tree limbs.
The Vista Loop Trail tread was fairly dry, but it had big divots in the tread from horses being ridden on the trail when the ground was soggy. We saw blooming Grass Widows, Yellow Bells, Smooth Prairie Stars, Butterfly-loving Desert Parsley, Gorman's Desert Parsley and the first bloom of Bare-stem Desert Parsley.
The Military Road Trail on our return hike had wetter tread so there were muddy, sloppy segments and cupping from mountain bike tires. So be prepared for wet stream crossings and muddy spots when choosing your footwear.
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