Loowit Falls from JRO

17 miles of hiking • 3000' elevation gain •

Surreal. Mid-70s, low humidity, and wildflowers just exploding across the Pumice Plains. Never seen such an amazing display before. Goat Rocks, at peak, can come close. Paradise Park pales in comparison. Rather than 10s of acres of gorgeous color, we luxuriated through 10s of square miles of unbelievable beauty, somehow dragging out 17 miles across 10 trail hours with Woodswalker. So many photo ops, the heart rate never really had a chance to spike. Not that there's anything, at all, wrong with that!

Had some drizzle on the way up SR-504 to JRO, and couldn't even see the mountain from Elk Rock viewpoint. As we left the parking lot, Johnston Ridge was in a cloud, though there were a few blue breaks above. By the time we'd gotten to Devil's Elbow, the skies had opened up, and we gloried in perfect conditions the rest of the day. I think the clouds actually enhanced the day. Looking around, we also decided that we'd absolutely picked the best volcano available as the other nearby peaks were cloud-capped much of the day.

Met a new trail friend out on the plains, and shared lunch at the falls with her. And, as it turned out, a steady stream of folks hiking in from Windy Ridge. Never seen so many people out along the Loowit! Willow Springs was once again a most inviting oasis, from which we enjoyed a good liter or more of ice-cold, volcano-filtered goodness. The plains were carpeted with dwarf lupine here, and the scent was intoxicating.

As we traveled back along the Truman from Windy, we traversed miles of paintbrush covered plains. Never seen anything like it before! This alone will be reason to remember this day forever. Just unreal.

By the time we'd gotten back up to the Boundary, it was starting to get a bit late, so we entirely missed the customary tourist crush. Words fail to express just what a wonderful day in the blast zone this turned out to be!