Hood River, Oregon - #2

Today, July 14th, we did some more sightseeing - actually re-visiting some places we had seen back in 2006 when we were here in the Columbia River Gorge. A few miles west of the town of Cascade Locks Historic Scenic Highway 30 takes off from the interstate and parallels it for 14 miles. It is a very narrow highway through dense beautiful forests of evergreens. Along the way are several majestic waterfalls. The first one we stopped at was Horsetail Falls, then a few miles farther is the most popular one - Multnomah Falls. Here are pictures of Horsetail, Multnomah, and Wahkenna Falls.







At the small town of Corbett, Larch Mountain Road takes off south east for 14 miles to Sharrad’s Point. At the end of the road is a large parking lot, then it’s a half mile hike up a paved path and finally up 100+ steps to a platform on top of the point where you have a full 360 degree panorama. The platform is at 4650 feet and from here you can see the 3 big mountains in Washington - Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams, and also the 2 in Oregon - Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson.







Back down the 14 miles to Corbett, then a mile or so back on Hwy 30 to Crown Point Vista House. This is an overlook high over the Columbia River with great views in both directions.



Just a few miles back east on I-84 is the Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery. We stopped there - first went to the Visitor’s Center at the dam where they have the “fish ladder” to allow the Salmon access up the river past the dam during their spawning season. There is a place on the outside overlooking the “ladder”, and also down inside the building there is a viewing room where you can see the Salmon go by as they make their way up the ‘ladder’. There is also a room where a guy sits all day and counts all the different kinds Salmon going up - Sockeye, Coho, Steelhead, and Chinook.







After seeing all the stuff associated with the “fish ladder” we went to the Fish Hatchery. Here they raise different kinds of Salmon for release, and also Rainbow Trout and Sturgeon. They have a viewing room where you can see the Rainbows and Sturgeon up close and personal. The real draw of the place is “Herman - The Giant Sturgeon” - What a fish!!!










Tomorrow we're moving on to the Oregon Coast.

Hood River, Oregon - #1

On Monday, July 12th, we left Rufus, Oregon and hit I-84 west again. We only traveled about 60 miles to Hood River. There are a couple of sightseeing points of interest we want to check out while we’re here.

Today, Tuesday, we went back up I-84 about 6 miles to the town of Hood River, then took Scenic Hwy 35 south to Mt. Hood. It’s a little over 30 miles, and all along the way there are great views of the 11,240 foot snow covered mountain.






Once in the area of Mt. Hood, there are several US Forest Service campgrounds and day use areas. One of the most scenic and popular is Trillium Lake. There is a fantastic view of Mt. Hood across Trillium Lake.



Just up from Trillium Lake is the Barlow Road of Oregon Trail significance. When the emigrants were on the last section of their journey, the majority of them followed the Columbia River. However, a man from Kentucky named Samuel Barlow built a road over the Cascade Range south of Mt. Hood and a lot of the Oregon Trail travelers used it rather than follow the Columbia River. It was named after the builder and some of it is still drivable - we did a short section, but it is very rough, so it didn’t take us long to get enough.




The elevation at the base of Mt. Hood is around 3800 feet, but there is a highway that climbs up the mountain to the famous Timberline Lodge - a National Historic Site. It is at 5900 feet elevation and as the name implies, it is right at the timber line on the mountain. It is a very popular place - year round snow skiing and snow boarding. Today we made the drive up to the lodge, watched some of the skiing, and went in a couple of gift shops.





From up on Mt. Hood at the Timberline Lodge the views are spectacular. The Cascade Mountains are awesome, and off to the south is a great view of Mt. Jefferson - 12,276 feet. There are five noteworthy mountains in this area - Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson in Oregon, and Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier in Washington. Tomorrow we are going to a place where all five mountains can be viewed from the one spot.





On the return trip today from Mt. Hood back to Hood River, there are a couple of places where there are really great views of Mt. Adams - the closest of the 3 big mountains on the Washington side.



Tomorrow - more sightseeing.

LePage Park - Rufus, Oregon

On Thursday, July 8th, we left Emigrant Springs State Park and hit I-84 west again. We’re still in the Blue Mountains at a little over 4000 feet elevation, but a few miles before Pendleton we went into a 6-mile 6% decent that took us down to 1500 feet. Whew!! What a drop! Definitely a lower gear all the way down.





Once we were out of the mountains and back into rolling flat lands and low hills, the big farming came back into play - many miles of wheat, corn and alfalfa fields. They irrigate the corn and alfalfa, but they do what is called dry-land farming for the wheat. Interesting that they rotate the fields and only plant a particular field every other year.



I-84 had been running mostly northwest since we came into Oregon on Wednesday from Idaho. The Columbia River comes down from Washington at Boardman, OR and makes a turn to the west. At this point, I-84 also makes a turn to the west and starts paralleling the Columbia. What a scenic drive - high bare hills on either side of the river, with the interstate, a railroad track, and lots of power lines jammed in low by the river. Also, all of a sudden it seemed like, Mt. Hood appeared in the distance.





We got a campsite LePage Park - an Army Corps of Engineers campground on the west side of the John Day River just before it empties into the Columbia from the south. From our site, we can see the Columbia off to the left, plus the interstate and railroad track.

On Friday, July 9th, we went a few miles down river to the John Day Dam - just one of several on the Columbia River along the Washington/Oregon border. We went to the dam and rode up and down the service road next to the river looking at the scenery, the river, and for birds.




We also crossed the river bridge at Biggs, OR and rode over on the Washington side of the Columbia River. The views from this side are also spectacular. The best we can figure, Mt. Hood is about 50 miles away, but especially with a clear sky, it looks like it is just right there. We can just imagine what the Oregon Trail emigrants must have thought when they first saw it.



Two of the big sports on the Columbia River are “Wind Surfing” and “Kite Boarding”. The wind surfers basically use a surf board with a sail on it - they stand on the board and manipulate the sail. The kite boarders use a special short board and a kite to propel them along. The kite is a small version of the later model parachutes that the skydivers use these days. They have 3 or 4 lines that run from the kite down to a harness and they manipulate the lines to control the kite. On Saturday we went over to the section of the river below the John Day Dam where the “board heads” were doing their thing and watched them for awhile.



Today is Monday -- would have posted this earlier, but didn’t have internet access at the last campsite. We are on the road today and stopped in The Dalles, OR to take care of e-mail, and ’blog’.

Emigrant Springs State Park - Meacham, OR

On Monday, July 5th, we left Three Island Crossing State Park at Glenns Ferry, Idaho and went west to Boise. We needed a couple of “big city” days to take care of some things - LaVerne some new sunglasses at Lenscrafters, an oil change for the Jeep, laundry, Wal-Mart, etc.

Today, Wednesday, we left Boise, hit I-84 west and crossed into Oregon at 10:20 MDT, and then into the Pacific Time Zone at 10:08 PDT.

The Oregon Trail emigrants had been following the Snake River for over 300 miles, but now the Snake takes a turn north at a place that was designated as Farewell Bend. There is a state park and some Oregon Trail Interpretive information. As the name implies, this is the point where the Oregon Trail travelers left the Snake River and headed across the southeast corner of Oregon to connect with the Columbia River. We got off I-84 and checked out the park and the bend.

Here are two pictures - one from out on I-84 overlooking Farewell Bend, and then another from within the state park.





Up to Farewell Bend we had been traveling through a mix of farm land (huge fields of wheat, corn, potatoes, and alfalfa) and some treeless hills - sage desert landscape. After Farewell Bend we really got into the mountains. It was still the treeless, bare, sage desert type landscape, but it wound around in & out among the hills following small streams - at one point, a pretty good size river, the Grande Ronde.

Here’s a few pictures of some of today‘s scenery.









Then we started climbing up into the Blue Mountains and the landscape gradually changed from the treeless, sage desert to heavily evergreen (Douglas Fir) forested terrain on both sides of the interstate.

Here’s a couple more scenery pictures.





Needless to say, the whole landscape today from the bare, sage desert hills to the evergreen forests was just beautiful. We topped out at the summit of the Blue Mountains at 4193 feet elevation and in a few miles got to our destination for today - Emigrant Springs State Park near Meacham, OR.

This place was another major stopping spot for the Oregon Trail emigrants. They had been traveling many miles away from the Snake River and across a lot of barren landscape. As the name implies, there are springs here and the emigrants took advantage to camp and re-fill their water supply before making the final run to the Columbia River.

Three Island Crossing State Park - Glenns Ferry, ID #2

We’re still at Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenns Ferry, Idaho. Since the previous update, we have done a lot of “camping” and very little “touristing”. On Friday we did go visit the Oregon Trail Historical Interpretive Center here in the park and took a drive again across the river and up on the bluff where there is an overlook with a great view of the Three Islands. The picture below is like the one I posted on Thursday, but on this one I’ve indicated the path the emigrants took to cross the river. They only used 2 of the 3 islands.



Also from the opposite bluff there is a great view of the state park, In the picture below, I have indicated where the two sections of the campground are located.



The 4th of July holiday weekend crowd began arriving on Thursday, then really filled up the park on Friday. There were No Vacancies. Like Memorial Day weekend back in Missouri - there were lots of kids on bikes, lots of folks BBQing, playing ball, socializing, etc, etc - America on 4th of July weekend! All day Saturday we were entertained by all the activity going on in the campground, plus there was a big family reunion going on. They started on Friday afternoon with a big get-together across the street in one of the big shelters, and then continued all day Saturday. They really had a lot of fun - eating, biking, socializing, and all kinds of games - sack races, wheelbarrow races, high speed dress-up contests, ball games, etc, etc. What a great time they had.

Since this was such a landmark place for the Oregon Trail emigrants, the whole town has an “Oregon Trail” flavor. In addition to the re-enactments each year in August, they have several murals on some of the buildings depicting scenes from travel on the trail. Here is a picture of just one of the murals.



We have been here a full week, so tomorrow it’s time to move on. We’ll be headed to Boise for a couple of days, and then on into Oregon.

Three Island Crossing State Park - Glenns Ferry, ID #1

On Monday, June 28th we left Lake Walcott State Park near Rupert, Idaho and traveled a little over 110 miles west on I-84 to Three Island Crossing State Park near Glenns Ferry, Idaho. Three Island Crossing was another major landmark and hurdle for the emigrants on the Oregon Trail. This state park got its name from the three islands that are close to each other in the Snake River. The pioneers encountered the Snake River near present day Pocatello, ID and followed the valley west on the south side of the river to this place. Here, most of the emigrants made a crossing of the river because, due to the lay of the land, the travel conditions were better on the north side of the river. Later they would have to cross the river again as it makes its turn to the north nearer the Oregon border.



There is a family of California Quail around the campground - we have seen them several times.





We took a couple of days of rest from the “tourist mode” on Tuesday & Wednesday, but today we went for some sightseeing. The town of Twin Falls is back east on I-84 a little over 50 miles and is on a section of the Snake River where there is a monster of a gorge that the river has cut over the eons and the river runs through it for several miles. The gorge is relatively narrow, and is around 500 feet deep (maybe more in some areas). The world famous I.B. Perrine Bridge crosses the river over the gorge as 4-lane Hwy 93 comes into Twin Falls.





This bridge is one of the few places in the country where they allow BASE Jumping (parachute jumping off of a fixed base) and we were lucky enough today to see some folks doing it (idiots!) BASE is an acronym having to do with the 4 kinds of fixed places folks jump from - Buildings, Antennas, Spans (i.e. a bridge), and Earth (i.e. a cliff). Since the height isn’t really that much (for a parachute), the jumpers pull the rip cord as soon as they go off the bridge railing and then land on a cleared strip of land by the river. Must be fun, but not something I would want to do.

Here is one jumper!







Here's another





This is also the place where Evel Knevel attempted to jump the Snake River back in 1974 on his rocket powered motorcycle. He didn’t make it and had to pull his parachute, and the best I remember, it banged him up a pretty good bit - a few broken bones, etc. Way up the river from the bridge you can still see the dirt ramp where he made his jump (idiot!).



Another attraction near Twin Falls that we went to today is Shoshone Falls. There is a park there with picnicking, concessions, etc. Even though the falls themselves are pretty awesome, they did not live up to the billing as being rival to Niagara Falls. Shoshone Falls isn’t nearly as wide as Niagara and this time of the year there isn’t nearly as much water as in the wetter seasons of April & May. Still, with the views of the Snake River and the gorge, it was a pretty spectacular place.





We’re here at Three Island Crossing State Park through the upcoming 4th of July weekend, so I’ll probably make another update from here later.