Mount Ashland revisited

Mickey and I decided to go on a hike again yesterday. We had originally planned on going to Denman Wildlife area near White City, but with the weather so hot we would have melted, so she suggested going back up to Mount Ashland. I jumped at the chance and picked her up at 6 a.m. We went into town and grabbed coffee at Dutch Brothers first...for her a cold triple iced mocha and for me a white chocolate raspberry sugar free skinny HOT one! Then back onto the 'five' (interstate 5) to Ashland, taking the Mt. Ashland exit...the first thing we saw were YELLOW lupines in bloom....beautiful....then we stopped for some amazing views of Mt. Shasta and Shastina!!!!

On up we drove past the ski chalet area, hoping for the gate that opens to travel toward Grouse Gap to be open! Luckily it was and we headed along the road, not getting far before the mountain meadows of wild flowers lured us to stop and get out to see all the flowers in bloom since our last visit.

Columbine was not only in bloom but there was this area of massive amounts of these plants...I've never seen so many all grouped together in bloom all at the same time!

There was Western Wall flower in bloom here and there adding a splash of yellow.

And also Indian Paintbrush here and there...

We saw many little birds and butterflies and I wished for the day to never end. We went from burying our noses in the flowers and bugs below us to standing in awe of the vistas of forest and mountains all around us. The weather was perfect - my car thermometer said it was a 'balmy' 66 degrees...hah! I think the only thing that coulda made the day any better woulda been a tunafish sandwich with dill pickles, chips and a V8!!!! (next time)!!!!

I posted all my pictures to my FACEBOOK if you want to see some of the birds and butterflies.