Dog Mountain: A Dog-Friendly Northwest Hiking Trail
We’ve been itching to go on this trail for the last month. Heard there were beautiful yellow wildflowers that bloom once a year during peak season (April through June) so we were dying to see this view for ourselves.
The day before heading out there I read some reviews about the hike and what to expect. There is a great app called AllTrails that I use which has pictures, reviews, and maps for hiking trails. You can search for trials in your area on this map and even track or save your hikes.
I read that the hike was very steep, 6.5 miles, 2,988ft elevation gain, packed full of hikers during peak season, a very tough hike, and complaints about bugs. During peak season a permit is required on Saturdays and Sundays ($2 which you can buy online) and after all are sold out no more are issued. We decided to head up there early on a Monday to avoid the crowd. If you have a discovery pass ($35 annually) and you can purchase with your vehicle tabs) you don’t have to pay the daily park fee.
We arrived there at 9:20 am and the parking lot was already 70% full. The hike immediately starts going up and climbing. There is a restroom pretty close to the parking lot, so we stopped there. The restroom was very dark with no lighting and very smelly.
The first half mile was a stair climber. The trail kind of zig zags until it reached a fork in the road. The path was dry to this point because there were some areas where the sun peaked through. We elected to go up the more difficult path because we like a challenge! I was tracking my hike with AllTrails and it shows you the path and elevations.
The difficult trail was more zig zags and seems to be a tiny bit longer. The more difficult trail looked like it was more of a wavy path with a few zig zags. Once we made way on the more difficult path it was more of a wet forest and the path was starting to get all muddy (from all the rainfall the past week). The trail was overall well maintained and had plenty of room for groups. We only saw two people heading down while we were going up. About 1 mile from the top the hike forks again where both the difficult and more difficult trails meet, and a single path goes up the remaining way. There was a sign with a nice wooden bench which looked like a perfect resting spot. We were so hyped to reach the top, so we elected not to stop and to keep going. After that point, we started to see more people heading down. The path became narrow at certain spots so if you have dogs with you like we did you might have to pull over to let people pass. 70% of the hike was through the forest with a nice shade and lots of pretty trees.
As soon as the trees start to diminish, we saw pretty yellow wildflowers. They were literally covering the mountain top. At the top we had a snack but we wish we brought a blanket to sit on. We enjoyed our granola bars, water, and apples, took more photos and then headed back down. I was surprised to see that there was not a ton of bugs like people described. I only saw one bumble bee.
On our way down we went straight and down and chose to take the difficult path down instead of the more difficult. It actually was a workout to head down the trail with the combination of muddy areas and steepness. When hiking down we passed about 20 groups that were heading up. We saw many people with hiking sticks trekking poles. We got about 30 comments both ways about how cute whippets are and even got greyhounds a few times! The path we chose to go down was much more zig zaggy and seemed like it was less steep. There was a clearing towards the bottom with a view of the river. Overall, we were very pleased with this hike. Not sure If I would hike this trail again unless it is during the wildflower peak season. Without the wildflowers it seems like you could obtain such a view on an easier trail.
