July 2-3, 2011, Columbia River Gorge

Saturday morning, July 2nd, we left Silverton and drove to the Columbia River Gorge.   The Gorge is beautiful and we got our first sighting of Mt. Hood on the way.  We drove through beautiful farm country with lots of fruit orchards, vineyards and vegetable fields.   We are staying at the Bridge RV Park in White Salmon, WA just across the river from Hood River, OR.  It is a really nice small RV park with grassy sites and lots of shade trees.  One thing we really like is that there is an Osprey nest in the trees behind the park. We enjoy hearing them calling and watching them fly around.

When we got here we found that the bridge to Hood River is a toll bridge and costs seventy-five cents each time you cross.  We know we will be crossing the river many times and the nearest bridge without a toll is about 25 miles away.  We just are not used to toll bridges and roads.

We were giving Cody 2 prednisone pills a day for 3 days and today we dropped it down to 1 pill a day for 3 days.  This evening we noticed that his belly is getting red and itchy again.  If it isn’t better by Tuesday we will call the vet in Silverton to see what we need to do.

Sunday, July 3rd, we drove the Columbia River Gorge on both the Washington and Oregon sides.  We drove west from the RV park on the Washington side and got a really good view of Mt. Hood.  It is a spectacular sight and reminded us of when we first saw Denali on our Alaska trip.

We stopped along the Gorge and watched these two wind surfers

and this kite boarder – Rex thinks he will stick to flying kites on firm ground.  This does not look easy.

Farther down river we stopped at the Bonneville Lock and Dam.  This dam is the first dam to be built on the Columbia River.  Lake Bonneville backs up for 48 miles behind the dam.  The locks are used to get ships and boats past the dam.  We looked at the displays in the Visitors Center and then watched fish swimming up the fish ladder past underwater windows.

We crossed the river east of Portland and started down the Oregon side of the Gorge on the Historic Columbia River Highway.  We ate a picnic lunch at the Vista House at Crown Point.  Vista House was built as a memorial to Oregon’s pioneers.

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The views from the 2^nd floor balcony were wonderful even on this cloudy day.

The next five miles of the highway goes past several waterfalls.  We really like waterfalls so we stopped at all of them.

Latourell Falls

Shepperd’s Dell Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

Wahkeena Falls

Multnomah Falls – the largest at 620 ft. is also the most visited waterfall in the Gorge.  It was certainly crowded when we were there.

And finally, Horsetail Falls

From here the historic highway merged with I-84 and we continued on to Hood River.  We drove across our first toll bridge to get back to the RV park.  We had a great time and enjoyed hiking to the various waterfalls.  The sky cleared and the sun came out in the late afternoon.