Rainy Hamilton Mountain camp and hike

After a lovely mother's day tea at school, Amy and I drove out of town, through the rain over the Bridge of the Gods to meet a friend at Beacon Rock state park for the night.

Amy- When we got there, I found a slug and decided to make a little "habitat" for it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom- We had a cozy rainy night at camp. Great food, good company, and a cozy tent.

Amy- There was a historic stone chimney. I took a look inside it. There was what looked like some paper in there.

Amy- I got to stay up late, until like 10pm playing card games. Our friend had a tarp and we had a cozy dry corner to play cards. She also brought LOTS of kinds of soda and we had S'mores!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom- We missed being able to see the high mountain views but it was really nice to be climbing in cooler weather.

Mom- We admired the waterfall and stopped at the Pool of the winds.

Mom- I always feel like I'm looking into a secret cave when I see it. So pretty and the mist is refreshing!

Amy- I was actually smiling in this picture.

Mom- enjoying the waterfall.

Mom- Beacon Rock in the distance.

Mom- as we climbed up to the rocky viewpoints, the clouds were swirling above us. We could still see the Columbia River below.

Amy- Last year this is where we saw a boy older than me throw up. The cliff of insanitaration (made up word by me).

Mom- We continued the last stretch to the top, enjoying the rockery and river views.

Mom- The powerful Bonneville Dam in the distance.

Amy- The view was super pretty.

Amy- It was pretty windy at the top.

Amy- These are rhododendrons.

Amy- These are pretty purple flowers.

Mom- After finishing much of the climbing we were getting pretty cold and wet but heading down the other side was much easier and I enjoyed the misty forest.

Amy- We saw a Trillium!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amy- We think these are wild roses.

Mom- not much of a view at the viewpoint but really nice looking across the saddle.

Amy- This is where the rain came in the hike.

Amy- A pretty pair of paintbrushes.
Mom- Everyone had a great attitude about the rainy night and day and the lovely climb but we think the next time our friend meets us, we deserve some sunshine!!!

UP Mighty Hamilton Mountain- 5/7/16

Hamilton Mountain is a great challenge in the spring to get ready for backpacking and climbing harder things. For 7 year old Amy this is at the edge of her ability level but she was ready we headed out early together for this 7.5 mile challenge which climbs 2000 feet.

We made it up the first big hill to the Pool of the winds which is a neat little overlook where you can feel the force of the spray and see the hidden waterfall in the rockery.

We enjoyed the waterfall from below...

We took a little breather before moving on to the stairs and more steep climbing.

As we started up we enjoyed an overlook of the Columbia.

When the going gets hard we request a picture!

We made it up the steep rocky climb to the first of many rock perches toward the top.

The view from here is lovely and we were feeling accomplished.

We saw a boy who looked to be about 12 throw up when he reached this point and felt sad for him.

The Bonneville dam on the river far below.

We continued up a little farther to the top.

We saw some hearty paintbrush flowers along the way.

At the overlook we saw Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood.

Then we headed back down the longer gradual side.

This is a 7.6 mile loop with 2000 ft of elevation gain in 3 miles. A pretty nice accomplishment.