Finally, a sunny day! A day to enjoy the sunshine and wildflowers.

I drove in the early morning to the Weldon Wagon Road trailhead near Husum north of the Columbia River Gorge.

The  2 1/2 mile wagon road was created in the early 1900’s to haul apples from the upper tablelands to the White Salmon River for transportation to markets.

After climbing out of the valley floor, the old wagon road quickly ascended to an open white oak savannah environment. The grasslands were peppered with the colors of early wildflowers, chocolate lilies, yellow glacier lilies, blue great hounds tongue, pink calypso orchids, golden balsamroot and much more.

At the end of the wagon road there was some old rusted farm equipment left there to capture a feel for the past.

On the way back down the old wagon road I stopped many times to enjoy the beautiful views of Mt. Hood and the upper cliffs along the Columbia river.

Beautiful scenery, history to be experienced, and many colorful wildflowers – – –  it made one feel great to be alive.