Dog Augspurger loop, May 7th

Dog Mountain is one of those places that gets more popular every day. Part of it is because it’s so easy to get to and the other because, if you time it well, you get the most beautiful wildflower display you can find in the Gorge. The problem with popularity though is that it has become harder and harder to find a parking space at the trailhead along Hwy 14. Recently Washington authorities, realizing the problem, decided to limit the number of cars that can park in the parking area in an attempt to have people park at nearby Carson and take public transportation to the trailhead (which I believe doesn’t exist yet)> Knowing all that, Val and I decided to go there to check he flowers as reports where indicating they were spectacular. Getting there was easy but very quickly we realized the parking issue. Not only the parking area was full but there were cars parked at every single little pull out along Hwy 14 for about a mile before and after the trailhead. It was a freaking circus! We ended up finding a spot about three quarters of a mile from the trail head which, for us, is not much of an issue other than having to walk along the highway to the trailhead. Talk about a dangerous proposition when you have kids, dogs and everybody plus their grandparents walking along a highway. Once at the trailhead, we wanted to use the bathroom… a 20-minute wait to get there. After all, that ordeal, we though “well, at least we can know start hiking and get up there” well, with so many people going there, the trail is packed so you have to stick behind someone at some point in the hopes they might let you pass. A circus. Luckily for us though, we went with the intention of hiking the back route to complete the loop. Most people don’t do that route and prefer to do and out and back instead. That gave us a bit of relief and even solitude on the way down to then finish with a hot walk on the highway back to the car. The good thig though is that we did luck out with the flower display. Not only the mountain was covered in the seasonal yellow, it had multiple pockets of purple, pink and red that made it almost magical.



Interactive map

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