Catherine Creek - Universal Access Trail, Catherine Creek - Natural Arch — Sunday, Mar. 17, 2019

Spring FINALLY has arrived on the Washington side of the eastern Columbia River Gorge. The Oregon side still appears pretty snowbound.

We went to Catherine Creek to see what wildflowers were coming into bloom so we were hiking at a "botany pace." The weather was sunny with high temperature in the mid-50s, but the breeze was brisk. The sky was quite hazy from air pollution blown our way from China on the jet stream.

Grass Widows, the primary flower show at Catherine Creek, are just beginning to bloom. Many of these early blooms look damaged by overnight freezing temperatures. The massed bloom is still a couple of weeks away.

If you go, arrive early to get a parking space. Catherine Creek was mobbed with people everywhere and it will stay like this, particularly on weekends, until June.