Paradise Park
I did 2 different overnight trips to Paradise Park this summer. The first was in Late July. I made a loop from Ramona Falls, up to Paradise Park, down over Zig Zag Mtn, and out Horseshoe ridge. The flowers were just starting to bloom at Paradise Park, and were very nice on East Zig Zag. The weather was calm, with little wind. A marine layer moved in overnight and the typical Cascades sea-of-clouds view was awesome. Hiking down into the clouds is a neat experience. Around 26 miles and 6500 feet.
I went back with the family a couple weeks later and did the route from Timberline over to Paradise Park. The flowers were good but still not at peak. It was during some hot weather so it was pretty warm on the mountain. We camped on an awesome bench near a stream, and spent some time hanging out in the meager shade of small tree. The highlight of the trip was hiking up to 7000 ft near Mississippi Head with Ethan and watching the sunset. The evening light on Mt Hood is almost always magical.
Denali got to come with us. It was really nice to have him along, but it was a little hard on him. He laid down in a patch of snow at camp and barely moved. I've been so happy with my DuoMid that I got a SuperMid for family trips, and this was our first trip with it. The weather was mostly calm, but we did have some wind gusts in the evening. The larger mid worked out really well.
