This cozy little “first-come-first-served” state park is our very favorite in the Columbia Gorge and we decided to stop in for a couple of days as we headed home from the family reunion in Boardman.

Patricia has a great blog post with some very nice waterfall shots – check it out HERE.

Visited a few waterfalls and found a few geocaches:

Peanutbutter #2
Mile Marker 27
We Love Highway 14: It’s a What? I Don’t See It!
I See It!! I See It!!
Oregon’s Crown (Point) Jewel

Time for the annual reunion on the Columbia River at Boardman ….. and Patricia’s birthday! The river wasn’t as rough this year and brother Bruce and spent some time out in the kayaks. He tried some fishing while I paddled out to a channel marker where an osprey pair let me know I was not welcome near their nest!

Patricia's Gluten-Free Chocolate Birthday Cake

Mom giving portion size instructions!

By far, several days in the Columbia Gorge were the highlight of May. We’ve explored it several times for a couple of days at a time but this time was different. Pat was flying out of PDX to NYC for over a week and this provided a chance to spend time hiking and geocaching at both ends of her trip.

This video shows highlights of the longest hiking day of the trip…..

After picking Pat up from the airport and making a quick trip back home, we spent the long Memorial Day weekend back here.

Had a great time! Managed to find enough hiking caches to complete the requirements for the Columbia Gorge Hiking/Caching Challenge (30 hiking caches from a specific list). Now I see there is a sequel challenge requiring 75 hiking caches from that same list! Another excuse to come back! This trip leaves me with 53 of those caches accomplished.

One dozen strong, our family group recently spent four days at Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood. High on the agenda was picking huckleberries – a notable tradition of our clan. The first two days we focused on collecting as many of those flavor-packed little treats as possible. The nearby geocaches showing on my GPS receiver screen were not going unnoticed however. I would get to those soon enough.

View of Mt. Hood from Timothy Lake

One geocache in particular was high on my agenda….quite literally. It was a cache called “High Rocks” located about a 20 minute drive from the campground. It was placed on the site of an old fire lookout, long since removed. As one would expect, these locations frequently provide the most stunning forest panorama’s. One afternoon, with berry picking concluded for the day, I took off to check out the view and hunt the geocache. I was not disappointed – the high rocky crag yielded a crystal clear view north to Mt. Hood and south to Mt. Jefferson with hints of The Sisters as well. Finding the geocache was anticlimactic to the gorgeous scenery but fun nonetheless.

View of Mt. Hood from High Rocks

Next on my geo-agenda was a cache place near and named after Little Crater Lake, a much smaller version of it’s big brother to the south. Nestled in a meadow at the end of a long arm northeast of Timothy Lake, this “lake” is a very small pond with eerie blue water so clear you can easily see to the bottom – 30 feet down with nearly vertical sides – and COLD! The water is 34 degrees and comes from an artesian spring. Found the geocache a short distance off a nearby trail – again, anticlimactic to the view before me!

Mike at Little Crater Lake

There were other caches along the 13-mile trail around Timothy Lake but time did not permit hunting more than just a couple more. Also disappointing was not finding time to walk parts of the Pacific Crest Trail which passes right next to the lake. Another time I guess.

Timothy Lake at Sunset - A Lone Kayaker

One evening as the sun was setting I managed to talk my wife into trying her hand at kayaking. She really enjoyed it – think we’ll have our own soon! Picking early evening with the orange hues of a setting sun on a smooth lake surface along with a view of Mt. Hood might have had something to do with it!