Went up to dog mountain today. Good amount of cars at the lot. We decided to take the west trail toward the other mountain to get to the top. Way less people. Steady incline the whole way but not too difficult. About a mile and a quarter from the top three wind set in like freaking crazy and it was wet and got chilly. Still doable but the wind was harsh and hard to see through the fog. Flowers were gorgeous! Well worth it!

Dog Mt flowers just about over, but still some to enjoy. The weather didn't cooperate-partial sun and breeze turned into fog and wind at the summit. Even so, a good outing to my favorite Gorge hike!

Amazing hike, it was very worth it for the view and the beauty of the sunflowers! The hike is all up hill except for a few breather spots towards the middle, the bugs pretty much follow you the whole time. The hike is about 7.8miles long round trip. But all in all it was a great hike!

Dog Mountain was beautiful today; rainy, flowers in full bloom, and not too many people on the trail. It was fairly windy and chilly at the top, but well worth it.

The wildflowers are still in bloom, but on their way out. I would give them another two weeks, so if you can, try to make it up there soon!

After this leg burner of a hike, we stopped for a beer at Double Mountain (Brut IPA is great!) and grabbed some tacos at Lake Taco (spicy, but great food and offer vegan options!) 

We secured our permits about three weeks early via this site: https://www.recreation.gov/ticket/facility/273800

Walk-up permits are available, but are limited and are first-come, first-served, so I recommend using the recreation.gov site. We live about two and a half hours away, so we got started around 10am and it was perfect. The parking lot was only about half full at the time we started. 

We took our dog, and she was leashed the entire time. We came across five unleashed dogs, though the trail does state that dogs are required to be leashed at all time; please remember this if you bring your pup! 

Did my annual solo hike up the Dog Mountain Trail and down the Augspurger Trail.

The weather was fine ... some low clouds on the river but, after having reached the top - around 10:30 am - the clouds dissipated quickly.

There were some bugs but they were not too bad. I do recommend having some deet handy though.

Unfortunately I'd forgotten to put my hiking poles in the back of my Outback so coming down, even on the less steep Augspurger Trail, began to take its toll on my 76 year old legs.

Overall a lovely day and the hike was very nice indeed.  I only wished that there had been more red and blue flowers mixed in with the yellow Balsamroot but you can't always have everything!