Monday, June 11, 2012

Columbia River Gorge - Lewis & Clark

As we visited the Columbia River Gorge, we came upon many sites that paid homage to Lewis and Clark and their exploration as they searched for a route to the Pacific Ocean.

Clark liked to hike and climb the highest point to survey the land. The peak below was one such point. From that highest point he saw a snow capped mountain and named it Mt. Jefferson in honor of the president. The land is now private and not available for the public to climb.



 The next three picture are the signage describing Clark and what he saw.







 From this vantage point , one could see MT. Hood in the distance and below was a rail road yard. We saw many trains while we were out west, some over a mile long.



 A closer shot of MT. Hood.


The Columbia River Gorge visit had been a dream of mind for many years. When I decided to actually fulfill my dream, Carol asked if we could see the Redwoods and so we did. We had planned on seeing Yellowstone before returning home. Quite frankly, I ran out of gas. We decided to slowly head home to Florida when we left Hood river, Oregon.  It was a great trip and except for the collision with a rather large bird and my windshield in the Blue Mountains in Oregon, uneventful.

By no means are our travels over for this year. We have a family function in Massachusetts soon and one in Michigan in August.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Columbia River Gorge - Scenery

Carol and I devoted several days to driving along the Columbia River on the Washington State side and the Oregon side. Following are various pictures that I took during those drives. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.












 These two pictures were taken on a particularly windy day. In the last picture there is a wind surfer out on the river along with a barge being pushed up river.





Sunday, June 03, 2012

Columbia River Gorge - Waterfalls

 When we left Vista House, I had wanted to drive up to Larch Mountain. From the highpoint, five Cascade Mountains would be visible. However the road was still closed due to snow. Then we set off to see the waterfalls along the Historic Columbia River Highway. The first on our list would have been Latourell Falls but the trail was closed. It seems there had been a very bad ice storm during the winter and that trail was unsafe due to storm damage. We pushed onward to Bridal Veil Falls. The trail was open and it was a dandy, loose gravel with a continuous downgrade. I hoped this waterfall was worth it as the return hike was all uphill. The following picture is representative of the entire trail.



Following are two pictures of the Bridal Veil Falls.




 We reciprocated with another couple and took each other pictures at the overlook to the base of the falls. Definitely worth the hike.



Waukeena Falls was the next falls that we encountered. I liked this one, no hike. The picture was taken from the scenic pull off.



 I did cross the street and followed the stream from the falls and took this picture.
 

 Multnomah Falls was the one falls that everyone told me was a "must see". My first picture tries to give the viewer a sense of the height from which the water falls. This first picture does not show that mid way the water drops onto a ledge before continuing to the base.


The following picture gives a better view of the water dropping off the ledge. Note the viewing bridge in this picture. Years ago a huge bolder dropped down landing in the pool sending a massive gush of water up and covering this bridge. Several viewers were badly hurt.


 I have a cranky knee and I no longer do stairs easily. I was happy to see that a winding ramp had been built to allow wheel chair access to this bridge. Again we found a nice couple to take our picture. From the picture you see that I was quite comfortable in the cooler weather and Carol was wearing her sweatshirt.



 Last on the list was Horsetail Falls. No Hike no climb, easily visible from the scenic pull off.








I can see how the falls got its name. It was a very enjoyable morning and we set off to have lunch.