Cautious! We encountered a rattlesnake on the trail. Super windy on the top, so be careful with your belongings. Don't let the wind below away anything that should stay with you. The view of Columbia River is so amazing. You can also see the tip of Mt Hood which is very close but hiding its body behind the mountains. Mt St Helens was also visible.

First of all I would like to say what a wonderful hike! The trip reports saying it is busy are no joke, we arrived at the trailhead at 8:30 am and we took the last parking spot. FYI, There is a toilet 100 yards up the trail (bring your own TP just in case - it was gone at 8:30 AM). The climb is pretty steady uphill most of the way with some areas steeper than others. The trail is in good condition although some of the steeper areas were a bit slick with some loose or wet soil. This created some slipping issues going up and going down. Better traction shoes are a good idea. We took a right at the first junction which gave us a nice lookout with wildflowers and a log bench overlooking the water and mountains surrounding. Continuing up the trail the views are similar but higher up but the trail itself offers some changes of scenery - some areas of thicker plants to walk through, some areas where you are walking along a steeper edge covered in wildflowers. We took another right at the next junction taking us to another viewpoint and from there took the junction on the left (the most open option of trail going up rather than down into the brush) - this was my favorite section of the entire trail. Surrounded by lush greenery and wildflowers - winding up the path to the summit ... some rocky areas along the path where flowers grew out of the rocks, finally winding its way up to the summit. We saw a beautiful deer on the trail before we reached the summit having a snack on the vegetation along the trail. The summit is busy and breezy - which was welcomed because the bugs at a point on the trail were annoying (bring your bug stuff) so the breeze was nice to keep the bugs away. There were a lot of people at the summit enjoying their lunches. Some large birds ... I think perhaps a raven and an eagle soared above our heads coming close to the ground made for a fun show. The hike down was lovely and we retraced our steps so we could spend a little time at the first overlook area soaking up some sunshine. Great hike. Come prepared for people and fantastic views. :)