McCall Point

Last Saturday was one of the first really nice days of the year. The sky was clear, the wind was soft, and it was warm. Almost too warm. It felt like summer finally. So, I wanted to go for a hike. I picked McCall point because it was close and I didn't feel like driving too far.

McCall point is located on Rowena Plateau, which I have posted about before. It's no more than about ten minutes away from The Dalles. McCall point doesn't open until May, so I had been unable to hike it on my previous visit.

When I had gone to Rowena Plateau the first time it had been sort of unpleasant. The wildflowers hadn't shown themselves yet, and the wind was fierce and cold. This time around though, it was warm with a soft breeze and many wildflowers. The reptiles were also stirring. I saw two snakes (a racer and a western terrestrial garter) and a lizard that some scared hikers had misrepresented as a snake after seeing only its head in the brush (southern alligator lizard).

The hike isn't all that long. The trail runs around 1.8 miles up to a meadow with an elevation gain of 1070 feet. After that, there is another, fainter trail that continues on for an undetermined length up to another crest, ending at a barbed wire fence denoting someone's farmland.

It wasn't a long trail, so I hustled on the way up and ran a lot on the descent, intent on being sore the next day. It worked.

The view from the top was beautiful. Rowena Plateau is already pretty high up, so stacking another 1300 feet or so on it makes for some nice vistas. From the top there was a great view of both Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams.

So, here are some pictures of those vistas. I apologize for the dark patches in the pictures, there is a piece of lint on the inner lens of camera that I cannot for the life of me remove. Anyone have any ideas? It's not the outer piece of glass, it's on the smaller lens behind that, which is impossible to get to.

This is the view west toward Hood River. Hood River would be right where the river turns there.


Here's Mt. Hood across a field of wildflowers.


And this is the view north across the gorge toward Mt. Adams.