Dawn and dusk are the best times to visit the national wildlife refuge; being there before the clouds burn off it is quite cool, even when the forecast calls for high 80’s.

I went in via the Mountain View trailhead, and I’m glad for the no dogs policy because there was a family of deer having second breakfast. that seemed quite content to carry on his usual, despite my proximity as I crossed the bridge on the Wildlife Art Trail.

Columbia Credit Union featured this hike as a partnership with WTA in their explorer series. They are giving away. WTA memberships each week through a raffle people can enter the raffle by snapping a picture of an Explorer series, sticker out in the wild and tagging #columbiacrediunion on social media. They they have featured two hikes over the last two months, and the third will be revealed this week.

For more details see: https://www.columbiacu.org/explorer-series/

The trail is in good condition and has plenty of parking. 

I was unable to do a lot of the trail as it was getting late.

Toilet facilities are open.

It’s a beautiful cool morning, just as a sunrise rising and clouds overhead made for nice even light for taking photos of all the flowers along the trail. I came in from the Cottonwood Beach side and hiked along the Refugee River Trail to the Lamprey Bridge. Just enough hike to get out with the dog and make it back in time for breakfast with the kids. Next time I’d like to check out the Wildlife, Art Trail. I could hear a lot of bird chatter coming from across Red Tail Lake. But for that I’ll need to leave Eisa the dog at home. She’s only allowed on leash on the River Trail.

We hiked the Mountain View Trail to the Columbia River and then turned east along the Refuge River Trail for about a mile before it was time to turn around, for about 4 miles total.

We saw 44 species of birds because we carried spotting scopes as well as binoculars. The water level is very low on the refuge due to the long, dry summer and fall.

Waterfowl are concentrated in the few areas with water. We counted nearly 1,000 Green-winged Teal as the most abundant species. Our best sighting was a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk.

The Black Cottonwood trees are just beginning to turn color so peak fall color will probably be another few weeks away.

The trails are covered in gravel and in excellent condition, but watch out for the dog land mines on the Refuge River Trail.

No wildlife to speak of sadly.  I found it kind of boring but then i looked down at all the different fauna and used my macro on my camera to capture interesting plant life and lots of fuzzy caterpillars on path.  Probably won't go again though.