Catherine Creek

Here's proof that there was at least one nice day in Oregon in April 2017.  It may have rained every other day of the month, but this one Saturday was absolutely beautiful.  Spring is a perfect time to head into the Columbia River Gorge for a wildflower hike.  I recently heard Catherine Creek mentioned a couple times, as a good spring flower hike.  And with the nice weather, I figured it was a perfect opportunity.

Just north of Bingen, Washington, there's a turn-off on Old Hwy 8 at Rowland Lake and the Catherine Creek Trailhead is just down the road.  There were a ton of cars there, but once we started hiking, we didn't see a lot of people.  On the south side of the road, there is a paved interpretive trail, which we did not take.  On the north side of the road, there was a trail that forked almost immediately and we went to the left.  I never found a trail map, so we hiked up for awhile following a ridge and then eventually turned around and went back down.  It might have been a loop, but it was really hard to tell.

The views over the Columbia River were great and there were lots of flowers.  Mostly really tiny ones, but there were lots of Pink Shooting Star (Dodecatheon) and some Small-flowered Prairie Star (Lithophragma).

And a nearby bonus for a post-hike refreshment, head to White Salmon to Everybody's Brewing for beer and food.