Dog Mountain — Saturday, Jun. 2, 2018

Got to the Stevenson Fairgrounds parking lot around 7:30, 8:00 this morning. Warning: the shuttle definitely comes every 40-45 minutes, rather than 30 minutes. We got to the trailhead probably around 10:00 because we were waiting for the rest of our group to show up and then had to wait a really long time for the shuttle. No issues at all driving to the parking lot. You'd also have no issues driving to the trailhead. There is a restroom at the Fairgrounds parking lot and another at the trailhead.

Keep in mind that there are rangers at the trailhead during the early hours to verify you have a pass. 

Trail is in excellent condition. Totally dry, no snow at all. We took the Difficult Trail up, and the More Difficult Trail down. The way up was a mostly gradual incline, with some steep parts. Nice place to sit at the top, but you start getting excellent views once you make it to Dog Mountain Lookout viewpoint, which is where an old lookout used to be (but is no longer there). I expected a more difficult time coming down given that the More Difficult Trail should have felt steeper, but it was actually fine.

Wildflowers were all over the place, but you could tell they were on their way out. 

We had young children on the hike, and they made it to the summit, but they did complain a few times. The dog we had on the hike did fine, but was definitely tired by the end. 

After we got back to the trailhead, we had to wait over half an hour to get on the shuttle. People were practically shoving each other to get on it, which was frustrating.