This is being written on a rainy Thursday afternoon, and I am way behind. Be prepared for a long post and lots of pictures.
Sunday we drove to Ainsworth State Park. Going through Portland was a piece of cake on an early Sunday morning, as expected. I wasn’t thrilled with the campground though. While the sites are long enough for a motorhome, the roads have low vegetation and I scuffed up the sides and top of the coach. No real scratches, but you can tell where the bushes and tree limbs were. I can’t blame the park since all the reviews said the park was this way. Guess I will just have to blame the person who made the reservation – Kevin! We got to our site and the coach absolutely would not level, no matter how many blocks we had under the back tires and the levelers. Yup, the reviews said that too. The nice park ranger put us in an overflow site that worked with only minor leveling so it was ok in the end. We wanted a full hookup site so we could do laundry, and this is nice for that.
Monday we decided to just do a drive up and back the Columbia Gorge. First we went across the toll bridge at Cascade Locks, a cool little town where there used to be big rapids. The rapids are now washed out by the Bonneville Dam, but some of the old locks are still visible.
Interesting history of the bridge and it’s name: When Lewis and Clark came through here, the natives had a legend about an earthen bridge that cross the Columbia here many years ago. They called it the Bridge of the Gods. Geologists say a massive landslide happened in the mid 15th century that dammed the river for some period of time. Eventually the river eroded through the dam leaving the rapids there. Lewis and Clark wrote they were the worst of all they encountered, and they were smart enough to portage around them. The locks were key to navigating the river until the Bonneville Dam was built. The bridge was named after the land bridge the natives described.
We crossed the river to the Washington side and drove east on Washington 14 which mostly hugs the shore next to the rail road. We did get a nice view of Mt. Hood. Quite impressive!
We drove up the road past lots of interesting sites, and we crossed the river in The Dalles to go back downriver. We saw a sign to the Gorge Discovery Center and Museum, and we decided to take a look. My, oh my, oh my! It was a wonderful place with outstanding interpretation of pre-historic native life, Lewis and Clark history, non-native settlers, and best of all, a great section on the geology of the gorge. We were fortunate that we saw this early in our trip since it made the rest of our sightseeing so much more meaningful. I highly recommend a stop if anyone is in the area.
We kept going and took part of the old Highway 30, one of the first roads in America specifically designed for beauty. Lots of nice pictures were taken, but I will spare you.
Late Monday I bent wrong and got a dreadful back spasm. I was in a lot of pain when I moved, so we took drove the Mt. Hood scenic byway. Lots of waterfalls on the way, but it was raining so we only took pictures of two.
Luckily the weather cleared as we got closer to Mt.Hood. The area was crowded, even on a rainy Tuesday in late September. I can’t imagine it would be enjoyable on a summer weekend! We had trouble finding any place to park which is why both pictures were taken from the car.
I was feeling a bit better by Wednesday which was the day we booked a 5 hour tour on the stern wheeler “Columbia Gorge.”
Isn’t she pretty? We had a great seat at a table next to a entry way. They opened up the entry doors just before we got underway. It was totally chance, but we had an almost unobstructed view from the starboard side.
In the last picture you can see native fishermen pulling salmon from their gill nets. They held up a few as we passed. Those were big fish! Only natives can use gill nets, and only a certain number of days a year. It is from the old treaty rights, and it provides a reasonable amount of cash.
Today I am still recovering from my back injury. I can now move fairly well, but I have a hard time getting out of a chair. We had planned on going back to the waterfalls, but it has been raining all day. Instead we went to lunch at the Multnomah Lodge. Nice place. My salmon was delicious as was the Creme Brûlée. Kevin said his fish and chips plus cheesecake was also good. Looks like no cooking tonight!
Tomorrow we head back to the coast to Newport, OR. We will spend a few nights in a campground at the marina and then see what to do. We have reservations at South Beach State Park after the marina.