Ian's Parents Visit

My parents came for a visit a couple weeks back. I just got the photos downloaded from my dad, so I will make the post now.


We drove up to Mt Hood on Saturday and took it easy. My parents rented a really nice place on the Salmon River in Welches.


Sunday we went on a couple of hikes on the East side of Mt Hood. Janel and I had not done any hiking over there yet as it is a bit too far for a day trip. First we did a short 2.5 mile hike to the top of Lookout Mountain. This was a relatively easy hike with a great view from the top. It had a nice view of Mt. Hood, and you could also see Jefferson, Adams, and Rainier.


Here is picture of Janel with my parents.





Here is a picture of Janel and I. We decided to pose a bit more than usual :).





After this hike we drove a few miles up 35 to hike Tamanawas Falls. The hike, as described in the Sullivan Book, was not possible because the old bridge was out. So, we had to drive down a few miles to the Polallie Trailhead. This added maybe a mile to the hike. The hike started out along a ridge above 35 which was okay, but after a mile or so hit a river and headed towards Hood and away from the road. This part of the trail was very peaceful.





After hiking in for maybe 1.5 miles, we hit the falls. Tamanawas Falls was great -- much wider than a lot of the falls in the Gorge and still quite tall. You can also hike all the way up and behind them which is always fun :). Here is picture of the falls from the front.





After the hike we came home and took it easy. That night we went out to dinner at Timberline Lodge.





The next day my Dad and I went on a hike to Devil's Peak Lookout. There are two ways to this lookout -- one that is a relatively easy 2.5 mile hike and another that is 8.2 miles with 3200 feet of elevation gain. The problem with the shorter hike is that it is at the end of a nasty 10 mile forest road. We decided to try the easy hike since and drive the evil road in my parent's rental SUV. This turned out to be a great decision -- I would not have wanted to subject my car to the road. This also shows why you don't want to buy used rental cars :).


The hike had some good views of the West side of Mt Hood, and the lookout building (shown below) was a strange place. There were a couple of beds inside and a whole bunch of random crap :).





Janel and I really enjoyed having my parents out for a visit and the house up near the Salmon River was great. You can see all the photos here. You can see some select photos here.