Day two of the spring visit to the Gorge found us east of Hood River on the section of historic highway 30 that starts in Mosier. It’s a great stretch of road that winds above I-84 with a slower pace and great views.
This end of the Gorge is dryer and therefore has less trees and more open grasslands. During the right time of year it is filled with wildflowers.
Spring has sprung and it’s the perfect time to head to the Gorge to see wildflowers popping so off we went. We started on the west end and moved east over the weekend. We had the typical west side early morning cloud bank but off to the east blue sky was beckoning.
It's warmed up here in Central Oregon and it's definitely time to be getting out and about. For the spring shakedown trip I chose to head to a place I had not visited since 1998, the Lost Forest. The Lost Forest is an isolated stand of ponderosa pine living in an area that gets about 8 inches of rainfall. In this environment you'd expect mainly sage with some scattered juniper, but instead there is an old…