Paradise Park is a popular destination on Mount Hood in all seasons, but especially spring and summer
for wildflowers. As you can see autumn brings a different dimension to the landscape. Paradise Park is
the relatively gentle slope above timberline at about 5600 feet and below Mississippi Head and the Zig
Zag Glacier. As a transition zone between the forest below and the barren rocks above, it hosts a
vigorous alpine tundra climate. This little ridge between two glacier runoffs seemed to display all
the elements that make Paradise Park so popular, but no single frame could capture it all. That made
it a perfect subject for a 360 degree panorama. The weather was windy and turning colder, and clouds
blanketed the mountain itself (it was snowing up there, as revealed the next day.) But I think the
unsettled weather makes this a more interesting picture than if it had been postcard-perfect blue-sky
weather.