Steve Cole Photography

My first trip to Dog Mountain was back in 2001 and just happened to coincide with the peak bloom of Arrowleaf Balsamroot. Back then, I casually snapped a photo using a 2 megapixel camera of some of the blooms not really thinking much about it. Over the last couple years, I decided I wanted to return in order to take some new photos with my 10 megapixel camera. Things didn’t come together last year for a visit but everything fell into place this year with sunny skies and peak blooms during my visit.

Dog Mountain is located in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area about 50 miles east of the Portland / Vancouver area on the Washington side of the Gorge. The trailhead is located along the banks of the Columbia River at 100′ and climbs 2500′ to the wildflower meadows and another 500′ to the summit. All of this happens over just a couple miles so the trail quickly and steadily gains elevation. The majority of this is shaded which helps since the temperatures can get warm.

On my way to the trailhead, I stopped off at Multnomah Falls. I won’t begin to replicate what hundreds of photographers have done here but I did notice that the moon was rising over the top of the falls:

A couple hours later, I was at my destination: the meadows of Dog Mountain. As was predicted earlier in the week, the Balsamroot was indeed in prime bloom. Although these photos focus on the flowers, the views of the Gorge and Mount Hood are tremendous!..