Crazy Beautiful on Mt. Hood

Tim and I took a hike up on Mt Hood this last week. It was most beautiful, truely incredible: fields of rock and small glaciers, meadows of blooming high altitude flowers.

This is Timberline Lodge pictured above (the view from above the lodge) which previously I had only visited in the wintertime to go snowboarding. Timberline is an awesome snow park location and the lodge is a masterpiece of old massive timberframes, big fireplaces and panoramic views out the many windows. It was built back in the 1930s as a WPA project during the Great Depression, fell into disrepair as a government owned building, and then was bought and restored by the Kohnstamm family. Today it is a beautiful tourist attraction and my delight as a local Portlander. Its only about a 45minute drive from home and an absolute pleasure all year round! Although previously I had only seen Timberline under over a dozen feet of snow!

sidenote: Timberline Lodge was used in the movie The Shining for the outside view of the hotel in the opening scene

Alright, enough about the lodge and the fact that its summertime so most of the snow is melted.

There are many trails that lead up and around the area- we hiked a section of the Pacific Coast Trail that passed thru to the Zig Zag Valley. Only about 4miles round trip and some of the most awesome views I've ever seen from Mt. Hood. It was really amazingly beautiful. I took many many pictures, posted some of the on flickr.