Rowena status (and other location questions)

Not being from the Portland area, I have to ask: would it be safe to assume that the display at Rowena is well past its prime by now? If so, are there any other places in the NW where I could still hope to find Balsamroot, etc. displays in good condition?

I find this weekend a bit of a paradox, in that everyone in the non-photography community seems so thrilled about the "wonderful" weather for this weekend. For myself, I was hoping for overcast so I could hit the Gorge waterfalls or Olympic forests. The current forecast for bright sunshine and cloudless skies all three days seems to make lots of locations in this area less-than-optimal (even beach sunsets will look boring without clouds), and, from what's been posted here, the Palouse -- my planned location of last resort -- still is far from prime. Any ideas where the rest of you are planning to shoot this weekend?

Try Dog Mountain on the WA side in the gorge for balsamroot James, the flowers should be peaking this weekend near the top. The hike is a steep 2.5 mile walk, but this will be the last great cluster in the gorge for the year. There will also be a lot of people hiking Dog this weekend, so be ready for some crowds. You might want to plan on a sunset, but by then on a warm day the gorge wind will be something to deal with too.

Good luck and have fun!

David M. Cobb

I'm located up here in the greater Seattle area and in addition to reports on this site, I also monitor this forum for Gorge related info:

http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/

Check out the Trip Reports & Trail Q&A forums..