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13.5 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain • 1 night

Did a short overnight trip with my mom - we did Lookout loop clockwise and camped near the summit. Perfect weather, near-perfect timing. Being the first time there, we did mess out a few things - took a wrong trail from wrong trailhead at first, then missed a turn to South Point we planned to visit, then not being sure where North Point is (no signs of it) we overshot it by more than a mile downhill. But overall it worked out good & the area turned out even nicer than expected.

Staticmap?size=254x125&zoom=4&maptype=terrain&markers=icon:http%3a%2f%2fwenthiking.com%2fimages%2fmarkersmall.png&key=aizasydt2ewyqnn42qqnrpazuysi2dtyerccchw&center=44.3267,-120 First off, we visited a mining ghost town Former bakery? Blacksmith? It's interesting how low some houses are, you almost wonder how people lived in them. Most likely though, they sank into the ground with the time Approaching summit meadows. There was a profusion of wildflowers, mostly past peak but still very nice These flowers were common at dry plateau meadows (I only saw such plant in Utah desert hikes before). Hummingbirds really seem to like these; we literally saw dozens of hummingbirds on this hike Lookout Mtn's summit is very big area covered with many meadows alternating with forest and small groups of trees... really park-like setting Being a ski trail, it's marked with blue diamonds Lookout Mtn's summit is very big area covered with many meadows alternating with forest and small groups of trees... really park-like setting We camped on this huge dry meadow just short of the summit Sunset from 6,900 feet All the major Central Cascade Peaks are visible from there, as well as southern and eastern horizon Sunrise, looking west with the shadow from Lookout Mtn (the western horizon was so hazy this morning we could hardly see the Cascades) I thought those were endemic to Pacific Coast Looking from the actual summit I cannot guess what it is... Balsamroot's still going good along the trail to North Point Here's looking at North Point. There wasn't any sign, so after lookin at topo map (which labels it wrong) we thought it is down the trail and went about half an hour past North Point until realizing our mistake Nature's rock art Man-made rock art Looking east toward Big Summit Prairie Huge summit meadow - not just sagebrush there but lots of flowers as well, and more hummingbirds I saw in prior two years Snow shelter Going down trail 804 While summit meadows were a little past peak, forest meadows were as good as they probably get Abandoned mine building at the end of the hike

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Comments

Jack, Mileage Mike, and Kyle Meyer heart this trip.
1

jon
July 23, 2012

Nice photos. I wonder what that plant is in image 20.

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Mileage Mike
July 23, 2012

Excellent area for hiking! Nice pictures.

1

jon
July 23, 2012

Maybe solved! My horticultural science degree-toting girlfriend says it's "Balloonpod Milkvetch."

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Roman
July 23, 2012

Thanks! It's beautiful area indeed, such a treat without as much effort as would seem just to earn it (other than long drive to get there).

Jon - Balloonpod Milkvetch might indeed be right name, image search in google looks spot on.