On Monday my family hiked Hamilton Mountain, which is out in the Gorge on the other side of the highway from Beacon Rock. We had done part of the trail before. When we got to this sign, we had turned around and decided to hike the rest of the trail some other day.
This time around, we were ready to tackle "more difficult." It was a really enjoyable hike. The climb up to Hamilton Mountain was fairly steep, but the spectacular views of the Gorge and the river made it worth it.
The "Pool of Winds" is part of a nice waterfall on Hardy Creek.
Looking down from the "Pool of Winds" over the rest of the waterfall and the trail bridge.
The view was so very beautiful! My pictures don't do it justice. This is looking west down the Columbia. That's Beacon Rock down near the river on the bottom left.
It felt so good to reach the summit.
Looking east. Table Mountain is on the far left. Directly to the right of it is Mt. Adams, but it doesn't stand out very well in this picture.
Walking along a saddle away from the summit.
As you may know, Monday was a really hot day. We definitely drank a lot, and we were glad to get back to the creek, take our boots off, and put our feet in the creek for a while. This was probably the best hike I've done in a while.
Lovely pictures, although the one looking over the waterfall makes me a bit ill :-)
ReplyDeleteI love the sign... "difficult" and "more difficult"
You do such a great job of drawing the viewer in. I just want to jump right in them:)
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