Observation Peak — Saturday, Jul. 4, 2009

Southwest Washington > Lewis River Region

What a beautiful 4th of July this year! I celebrated by hiking to Observation Peak in the Trapper Creek Wilderness. The first bit of trail had quite a bit of bunchberry blooming along it. That quickly disappeared and the next section of trail had hundreds and hundreds of glacier lilies. After about a mile, the trail descends, which means you have to climb back up it on the way out! It was also at this point that I encountered swarms of mosquitoes, which would stay with me all the way to the summit. Just before the summit I could see the bear grass blooming in abundance on the slope above me. There was quite a lot of it blooming up there and it was at its peak. As if that weren't enough, the views were tremendous! Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. St. Helens. The mosquitoes were really bad up here, but if you come on a mosquito-free day you'll want to linger here and soak up the wonderful views.