Luckily I had thrown my hiking gear from yesterday's sodden hike into my aunt's dryer so I was prepared for a hike today. Cedar and Luna needed a leg stretcher too, so we went to Mount Zion. Last time I did this one, it was just me and Cedar and it was very foggy so we had no view. Today the sun had broken through and it looked like a great day to be on top of a hill.
The way up was lovely (other than the sound of gunshots from someone target practicing somewhere out on the forest service roads - we heard this the whole time, and I remember hearing it the whole time we last hiked here as well. Bummer!) We saw only a couple opening rhododendrons toward the start of the hike, but as we hiked up I saw quite a few of the beautiful lady slipper orchids, some coral root or indian ghost pipe just starting to show out of the ground, and flowering currants.
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| I think this is deer foot vanilla leaf. |
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| The usual pink lady slipper plus a couple very pale colored ones. |
It's a steady climb, but a nice grade up through the forest to the top where we were rewarded with a lovely peek-a-boo view of the puget sound.
We followed the ridge trail quite a ways to the right, passing a natural spring, and came out on a rock face escarpment with a gorgeous view of the surrounding peaks.
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| I think the only reason Luna looked at the view is because Cedar just did and she copies him haha |
Here is a shot of some of the wild rhododendron along the forest service road on our way down.
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