Columbia River Gorge

Wednesday, June 17
Our phone rang at 6:15 am - Beth called to say Happy Birthday to Ken forgetting we were 3 time zones away from her :-)  But it put smiles on our faces anyway.  It is always great to hear from our kids no matter what time it is!!!!  By the time we got on the tour bus we'd talked with Noelle and wished her a happy birthday and Ken had talked with Dan as well.  The day was getting off to a wonderful start.  Then we got on the bus and everyone sang Happy Birthday to Ken before we took off.  What a fun start to a beautiful day!

Kiron, our guide, took us on the historic scenic highway along the western end of the very scenic Columbia River Gorge telling us of the history of the highway, the story of the creation of this very deep and picturesque gorge, as well as describing and naming some of the many trees and flowers we were seeing.  Our first stop was at Chanticleer Point which provided us with this awesome view of the gorge (note the tiny building on the far right on the mountain and see the next note)

We continued our drive to this lookout point and the Vista House - a gorgeous building created by the government (lots of  bucks spent on a marble interior, stained glass windows, etc)  as a rest stop and viewing point for travelers

for these spectacular thirty mile views of the river.

We could sure see a lot despite the early morning haze.  

The next stop was at Latourell Falls which can be seen right from the road

There were other falls but they required hikes to get to them - in fact Kiron told us there are over 70 of them in the area - but the only other ones we stopped to visit were the famous Multnomah Falls.

It drops a total of 620 feet (2nd tallest year round water fall in the U.S.) from the very top hitting a "shelf" under the bridge and then continuing down.  We did the steep climb up to the bridge to get this shot of the upper part of the falls (which is has a 542 foot drop)

Since our focus is the travels of Lewis and Clark, I just had to take a shot of this Douglas Fir trunk on display showing various historical events during which it was growing.  Note the 1805-6 one for the Corps of Discovery passing through here.

We attempted to get into the Bonneville Dam, one of 14 dams on the Columbia River, but we were unsuccessful.  However, we were able to go to the fish hatchery which has been built to provide a fish ladder at the dam to keep things as "natural" as possible as well as raise more fish and keep adding them to the water.

When we arrived they were weighing and then moving fingerlings to the next pond

They had a very large pool with several steelheads in it.  One was 10 feet long and weighed over 400 pounds.

The grounds included this beautiful fountain of fish

and loads of beautiful flowers

From there we drove into the town of Hood River for lunch.  This small town sits on the edge of the Hood River, one of the tributaries to the Columbia River.  Nine of us chose to go to the Full Sail Brewery where we could look out at the mountains in the distance while enjoying our meal - including celebrating Ken's birthday.

This was our view from the table. You can barely see the river for all the brewery equipment and other buildings, but it is there and of course the mountains always add interest. 

Following lunch we drove down by the river to see all of the kite sailboarders having great fun.  Our guide told us this is a favorite place to do it as there is a small island to set up on and a year round constant breeze of about 30 miles an hour.  Hood River gets only about 10 inches of rain a year so it has lots of blue sky days too.   Interestingly just 20 miles west of there along the Columbia they get 30 inches of rain per year.  This is the point where the desert begins to turn green as you could see in my pictures from our drive west along the Columbia.

After lunch, we drove through the beautiful Hood River Valley that is well known for all its fruit farms - apple, pear and cherry trees, grapevines, and blueberry bushes fill the countryside.  We made a stop at one of the big fruit stands and purchased some of the fruit - primarily the black cherries that are just now being picked as well as the Ranier cherries.

Our drive then took us up over 6000 feet to the Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood with several stops along the way for picturesque shots as we got closer.

The mountain has 11 glaciers on it and normally can offer skiing 11 months of the year but this past winter there was almost no snow and it was even too warm to make much snow so there was no activity going on at the lodge short of people just visiting and enjoying the place

In the lobby area on both the first and second floor, there is a huge fireplace with openings on four sides to accomodate all the skiiers in to warm up and enjoy some relaxation

The stone, wood, and tile used in building the lodge makes for a very decorative and inviting setting.  Even the drinking fountain area is beautiful!

Outside there is lots of rock, grasses, trees and lupine much of which is covered by snow in the winter months (or should be) as can be seen as you look up this slope behind the lodge.

At the far left you can see one of the ski lift buildings.  About 40 years ago Ken and I visited here and took the lift up with the skiers just to get a feel for where they go and have fun throwing snow balls. Today it wasn't even open.  

This is another shot back at one end of the lodge from the mountain. It is a huge place!

This is truly a gorgeous area to visit and spend time simply soaking up the sights and sounds.  Lots of people were doing that in the chairs around the outside of the place.

Back at the front door waiting to get on the bus to return to the campground, I took this picture of Mt Adams and Mt Jefferson that can be seen way off in the distance.