As we drove toward Dog Mountain from our hotel in Hood River, we drove into some low clouds covering the mountaintops above the gorge. Arrived at the parking lot a bit after 10am and it was mostly full. We hiked the main trail both up and down. As I hiked up much of the early morning rush was already hiking down. Wildflowers begin in the switchbacks that lead to the first junction. Once past the first junction I started hiking into the clouds and it got misty. Pretty low visibility and zero views at the first viewpoint, though the balsamroot were in peak bloom. Beyond the second junction when I arrived in the beginning of the open flower slopes, I was amazed to see the vast slopes of flowers on both sides of the trail. The best balsamroot fields I have ever seen, and at peak bloom! Unfortunate that the clouds were so thick and there were no views. I reached the summit 2 hours from the trailhead, including some photo stops. I did hike to the true summit in the woods, just to make it official. There was a good crowd at the summit viewpoint. I waited at the summit for over an hour, waiting for the clouds to hopefully lift and also waiting for my dad to catch up. At about 1:30, after I saw many hikers come and go from the top and when my dad arrived, the clouds began to lift and the sun broke through, lighting up the flower fields and opening up the great view downstream past Wind Mountain! The hike back down through the flowers was absolutely spectacular!
The balsamroot is at peak and this is a bucket list wildflower hike.
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