April showers bring May flowers!! This is at least an annual hike for me, if not biannual. It is located on the east side of the Gorge and is phenomenal. I always go in the “backdoor” for this hike and do a much longer loop that keeps me away from others who have learned about the beauty of this place. You can find some of the very best balsamroot displays along with the purple blue lupines, orange buttercups, and red Indian paintbrush….you name it, this place is a riot of flowers in Spring and I love it. To be fair it is pretty intense in winter too. The beauty here can be so completely astounding that it hurts my eyes…..I feel like they are bleeding from the beauty of it all. My soul actually hurts when the flowers reach utter perfection, the sky clears out to a perfect crystal blue with snowy Mt. Hood in the background and then the horizon turns pink as the day begins its descent. I feel that I am standing on the edge of time up on these cliffs. How can Heaven be better than this is always my question up here. But God assures me it is. I always get into conversations with God this time of year about what His favorite color is when I see so many flowers.
On this particular day Nova and I unrolled our hiking quilt and laid out in the fading sun for hours reading, napping and watching eagles play off the drafts along the cliffs. They were generally flying level along beside us as we were so high up. I loved watching them looking down on us when they would swoop overhead. I couldn’t help myself and would wave and call out to them each time.
Something different on this hike though was thanks to my Aunt Bobbie! After I had mailed out a photo calendar for Christmas last year, she wrote to me and said that any hiking Princess who wears tutus wouldn’t be caught without pearls and pumps. Oh, don’t encourage me, Bobbie!! Well, we fixed the pearl necklace issue, but they don’t make pumps for dogs and they would be highly inappropriate for the conditions if they did. For the record, Nova does have hiking boots, but she hates wearing them. I do, however, think she was very proud of her pearls and tutu this day in the flowers!
The other thing that makes this day special in my memory is that it was the very last hike that Nova and I did with just the two of us. Little did I know, but 2 days later, Josie Lynne came into our world. Things were about to get very complicated for Nova and I!!
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