National parks are places that have been set aside to protect an environmentally or culturally important area. There are currently 63 national parks, and I have been able to visit 40 of them. Although everybody has heard of our national parks, many people have no idea that there are 129 other parks termed national monuments […]
Category: Photography
Echo Basin – In Search of Wildflowers
Late June through July is the prime wildflower season in the high meadows of the Oregon Cascades. I decided to hike the Echo Basin Trail in the Willamette National Forest on a wildflower quest. This trail is located between the Santiam and Tombstone Passes in the “Old Cascades”, a geological region of mountains that are […]
A Super Easy Waterfall Hike
Sweet Creek Falls Although Sweet Creek Falls is the ultimate prize, this 2.2 mile roundtrip out-and-back trail is a beautiful and easy hike along a creek that cascades and tumbles through a canyon in the Coast Range near Mapleton, Oregon. The hike stretches to 2.4 miles if you climb to the upper viewpoint of Sweet […]