A seven mile hike with 1400 elevation gain
---- Elk Meadow ----
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
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This is where we hiked.

There are lots of trails in this area

As usual we circled up at the trailhead before starting the hike.

We were warned.

Crossing Newton Creek was not going to be easy

Photo courtesy of Cathy

We started up a rather nice trail
This isn't hard

The following photo courtesy of Cathy

We arrive at Newton Creek and survey the challenge

Those logs are small and not very stable

But this group is up to the challenge

Richard, as usual, is there to help and make certain everyone is safe.

We had to cross some other bridges, but by comparison they were tame.

Photo courtesy of Cathy

There was even a nice relatively safe bridge across one stream.

Finally we arrive at the meadow

With Mt. Hood in the background - what a sight.

Look at what we found, playing in the meadow

This is the group that made it to the meadow.

Our new friend has adopted Lydia

Our new friend also found another playmate

We had lunch at a shelter at the edge of the meadow

We walked by some magnificent really big trees

Washington lily
(Lilium washingtonianum)

Note, this lily was named after Martha Washington.
It was not named after the state of Washington

Aster

White Bog Orchid
(Platanthera dilatata)

There are lots of Orchid species. Some books say that there are over 35,000 species in the Orchid family.

The orchid genus Platanthera has 33 different species.

The white bog orchid is a widespread species split into three varieties based on spur length and shape.

In variety "albiflora", the spur is club-shaped and shorter than the lip.

In the variety "dilatata" the spur is more slender and equal in length to the lip.

The variety "leucostachys" has strongly curved spurs that are more than 1.5 times longer than the lip.

All of the varieties are similar in having numerous, small, white flowers clustered into a thick, elongated spike borne at the tip of leafy tall stems. The lip petal is distinctive in being conspicuously broader at the base (“dilated”) than the smooth, tongue-shaped tip. (see http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/platanthera_dilatata.shtml)

ID thanks to Lu

Monkey flower
(Mimulus)

Click Here to see the different species of Monkey Flowers

There were signs along the way