Gifford Pinchot Nat'l Forest

Saturday, June 26th, we decided to get an early start and head to the Gifford Pinchot Nat'l Forest and Mt Adams. Mt Adams is the 2nd largest Mt in Washington St...thanks to Mt St Helens blowing her top!! One of the entry's to the park is less than an hour from our house at Sunset Falls which is where we ended the day. We had been told that the park didn't get many visitors as everyone either went to St Helens, Rainier or Mt Hood and it seemed to be true. Most of the day we felt as if we had the place to ourselves which was nice but creepy winding thru Lookout Mt, a great gravel road over a 4000 ft pass. We realized if we dropped off the side, which was vertical in most spots, nobody would find us for yrs!!! Seeing how I was driving thru this stretch...it was on Chuck's mind!! ha ha
The GPS Chuck got for Christmas really came in handy on this trip, we were able to compare it with the Topo map and find some awesome roads...one spot we want to go back to looked like a major interstate for deer and elk, it was unbelievable how many tracks had churned up the area crossing the road. Neither one of us had seen anything like it before and that is where we saw the one deer of the day.
It was heading up Lookout Mt where I spotted my first bear in the wild.....it was so little I didn't even know what it was at first!! Seeing one has been a goal of mine for awhile now and needless to say I got a little excited!! The jeep scared it I'm sure but my yelling just pushed it right up the mountain. We got a good look at it as the slope it was running up was bare of everything but the bear!!
It was a GREAT day!!
We came out at a little town called Trout Lake and cut down to Hwy 14 and were going to come home along the Columbia river but the wind was blowing so hard it was miserable. The Columbia river was full of windsurfers...they had a great day for their sport, sun and high winds!! We cut back into the forest and took the "long" way home....isn't that always the best way???