Plan was to hike the trail to base of Chimney Rock then spend the night camping out at the trailhead before driving back home Sunday morning. Beautiful hike, but it was a rather chaotic day. We had an altercation with another hiker who wouldn’t leash his dog and this wonderful hiker continued to harass us back at the trailhead parking lot. We cancelled camping out due to thick, smoke filled skies. Had my first ever Chinese from a “restaurant” inside a gas station (look forward to never repeating that again — though in all fairness the veggies and kung-pao sauce were delicious, but the chicken was a no-go for me). On the drive home we drove past two separate incidents on the fwy filled with flashing lights from emergency vehicles. A car too busy speeding to pass me up nearly collided with a fire engine truck as it was making a U-turn onto our side of the freeway. Sunday morning news reported a fatal car crash on I-90 in Idaho at 2 AM that involved a truck jumping the median and a car catching on fire and one man pulling the other out of the burning vehicle. My goodness… our first time leaving Washington state in 22 months and Idaho decided to turn it up full notch on the drama.
View Route Details: AllTrails Map of Our Route
Off on another hike we go! 
But this time with Major leading the way. 
Of course vizslas want sandwiches with kolbász! 
Major, what do you say we turn back around and head back home? 
Then what do you say we head out and cover some more ground? 
Fall colors started to come in, but with as dry as it’s been some of the colors are due to trees dying. We mostly saw signs of that on the road on our drive to the trailhead and not so much once we were on the trail. 
A fish bowl’s view of Major’s world. 
Major decided to be the pop of fall color in this photo. 
Cost of posing for photo shoots: kisses. 
The final boulder for Major to hop off of before he was back on non-slanted ground. Poor guy got sewing machine legs. His first time bouldering and while he was great about gripping on and climbing up he was not too keen to jump from one to the other. I get it Major, I’m more of a butt-first bouldering kind of person. 
One last look back before it’s mostly all forest view.
As for the giant cable? That’s also wrapped around a giant boulder that fell below. We are all: ???
Just too noble blooded to drink direct out of the pool of fresh spring water. Had to cup it and bring it to him. (Mind you, at home he chooses to drink out of the muddied pools of water on our dirt road.) 
Probably my favorite thing about him — he loves his kisses. (Except, I also know he eats poop so he gets mostly just ear kisses.) 
Chimney Rock trailhead has two pretty awesome camping spots. (Though they are quite slanted. There’s a really nice flat one right in the parking lot, but not as atmospheric, cause, parking lot.) 
The river is just right behind the campsite. 
Time to head back home with all the packed gear never really unpacked! 
Cause. Idaho. Yes, let’s put a chainsaw in a perfectly healthy tree to mark the entrance to our driveway.
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