The Teanaway area is quite interesting for outdoor recreation and worth the commute, although I had a dog that wasn’t thrilled with the curvy ride. After cleaning up a mess in the back of my car, we were able to hit the trail by noon, later than I had planned. The road in had shallow potholes but was smooth enough at this time for everyday vehicles. We were the seventh vehicle in the lot, which the WTA description says could fit 20. Even with my vehicle squeezed in between two others, I don’t see how. Definitely at least 10. Maybe I didn’t see the entire lot because I went out the same way I came in. The pit toilet was stocked and had a large trash can with a lid.
It was warm when we started. I had two Teanaway hikes with flowers and peaks on my list to choose from, and I decided to do this longer one since the weather forecast was cooler than this time next week. And in case I could only do one of them this year, I figured I wasn’t getting any younger. After doing this hike, I highly recommend on a warm day to take advantage of either the early morning or early evening for cooler temperatures. I actually enjoyed ending my hike in the early evening as we got to enjoy cooler temps when we were more fatigued. And this was a hike of perseverance to get to the peak. Between the pass and the peak, there were a couple of spots that had that nasty combination of being steep and having loose soil. These are areas that are harder to go down than up when you really don’t want to fall or slide down any bit of the hillside. Only one spot that had some snow completely over the trail, but it wasn’t hard to go around. Although not a clear day for best views, it was still spectacular, especially for someone who’s not used to seeing these peaks. The flowers were also spectacular. The trip reports from AlpsDayTripper will give you a much better idea of what all there is to see out there in that department. I am including a collage of some of my favorites. Highlights for me was seeing yellow columbine and a pussypaws plant, which I find cool now that I know they can thermoregulate by raising and lowering their flowers. Butterflies were literally everywhere. They were in the parking lot, on every pile of horse dung, at every water crossing, and would fly into me. And like the flowers, they were gorgeous and very distracting. Also saw a small brown snake near water and a Clark’s Nutcracker flying through a section of the trail.
Wasn’t sure about taking a dog on such a long hike, but it turned out to be a very dog friendly trail at this time with many small stream crossings for water and paw soaking. The trail path is also quite soft being mostly dirt or tree needles. So a very dusty trail but one that’s friendly to joints and a quick descent to the trailhead.
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