September and October in the PNW

 

Whenever I talk to people who are interested in visiting the Pacific Northwest, I always recommend they plan their trip for September or October. The weather is usually still fantastic, especially in September, but the summer crowds have died down and the changing of seasons is gorgeous.

Well we’ve been extra lucky on the weather this year, and I took my own advice and got out as much as possible to soak up this late summer-like days, knowing I’d be gone for the next few months. Here’s a few snippets from my local weekend adventures.

The Bridge of the Gods was closed to cars for an hour on September 6th for the Pacific Crest Trail Days Festival. I headed out to get some pictures and was surprised by just how much the bridge moves when the winds gust through the gorge!

After the bridge opened back up I went back up the gorge for a hike up Wahkeena Falls to Devil’s Rest. I recently bought a waterproof housing for my iPhone, so I spent the majority of the hike literally in the creek.

I managed to get a little paddle in the next weekend around Bachelor Island, and a hike up Bald Mountain the following day.

September is also wildfire season, which made for some technicolor smoke filled sunsets up on Larch Mountain.

The Elk Meadows hike on Mt. Hood was high enough to get me out of the smoke for the day. Nothing but clear blue skies at this elevation.

October arrived and the leaves started to turn slightly, but the temperatures sure hadn’t cooled down yet. It was so warm I didn’t mind hopping into the freezing water to get some shots of Punchbowl Falls.

Finally last weekend it cooled down a bit and was gloomy enough to get some moody shots of this old abandoned house near Latourell Falls.

I’m hoping to get one last PNW day trip in this weekend before I leave for South Africa 🙂

• bridge of the gods
• columbia river gorge
• fall
• hiking
• mt hood
• oregon
• pnw
• punchbowl falls