Cool and damp to warm and dry. That described both the weather and the landscape for us on today’s travels.
We woke to persistent rain which was a little daunting as all the sightseeing planned for the first hour or two was outside! We decided to delay our start til 9am even though we were packed up, breakfasted and ready to go by 8. Neil saw a break in the clouds around 9 so we grabbed the bags , checked out and drove through the pretty little town of Troutdale, It was nice to see the pretty side of the town as we’d spent the night in the working part of town between the interstate and the railway. Luckily the hotel was nice!
The Columbia River Gorge Highway was the first planned scenic byway in the USA and was built in 1913. It follows the path of the Columbia river as it passes from the lush forests of Western Oregon to the dry desert west of the Cascade mountains. The river marks the border between Washington and Oregon for the entire drive. As we entered the highway we were immediately surrounded by lush forests of oak and beech, still dripping from the rain. The original highway has been wiped out by the interstate in parts but here we were using the original road with its stately old stone bridges and barriers.
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| Looking up the gorge towards Vista House |
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| Vista House on a rainy day |
Our first stop was in a park to see the classic view of the gorge, looking east past the lovely old Vista House which sits on a peak overlooking the river. Vista House was built as a rest stop for drivers along the road and it is maintained now as an information centre. We stopped there for quite a while as the rain had come in again and Neil had left his raincoat in the car! We weren’t the only ones suffering with the weather, a group of bikies arrived and stripped off all their wet weather gear to reveal surprisingly mature faces. Unlike doctors and policemen, bikies just seem to be getting older!
The Gorge is known for a series of pretty waterfalls and we stopped at three, finishing up with the loveliest and most popular one, Multnomah Falls, which plunges 620 feet in two levels and is framed by an old iron bridge. I think the damp weather may have helped us here as the parking lot was packed, it must be well nigh impossible to get a park on a sunny summer day.
After this the weather rapidly improved and the sun was out when we pulled in to the parking lot of Bonneville Dam. This was a colossal sight as it gushed water from its slip way. It powers a huge hydro electricity plant that supplies much of the northwest, however the really amazing thing here is the incredible fish ladder that the wild salmon use to get to their spawning grounds. It dwarfed the one we’d seen in Seattle and we were fascinated by the thousands of salmon that we could see in each of the “steps” of the ladder. We watched them leaping their way up from one step,to the next, it made me tired just watching.
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| Bonneville Dam |
We were getting pretty hungry when we arrived at the town of Hood River, so we made a beeline for a promising lunch spot I’d found on the Internet. The Gorge White House is a winery and orchard set in a lovely spor surrounded by vineyard coveted hills and fields of berries and flowers. We ate a delicious lunch but decided that we would be sensible and stick to apple cider instead of their wines – we still had a long way to drive! They offer “pick your own” flowers and berries which seems popular with families and locals.
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| Our lunchtime view |
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| Maryhill Stonehenge |
After lunch we continued east along the river which was now a striking dark blue against the pale gold of the dry grasses on the hills. We paused briefly to see Stonehenge…..yes, I did say Stonehenge! It’s a war memorial, dedicated to the soldiers on WWI and was built her on a high hill overlooking the river shortly after the war ended. Its a full size replica and it is finished as tey believe the real one was when it was first constructed. It’s a bit bizarre to stumble on it in the wilds of eastern Oregon!
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| The Columbia River in the dryer east. |
From there we had a 2 and a half hour drive on to Walla Walla, our base for tonight. We had hoped to stop in and visit the Whitman Mission National Memorial which commemorates those who travelled out west on the Oregon trail but it closed before we could get there. ( Next time!). We were both feeling a bit dozy in the late afternoon so we stopped to grab a coffee in a little town along the road – I resisted the temptation to order a Bozoburger (!?!). Just as well because it wouldn’t have left room for our dinner. The hotel manager recommended an Italian restaurant downtown called T. Maccarones. We had a delicious meal washed down with another lovely wine, a Saviah Cellars Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, grown nearby in the Columbia Valley.
This area is a major wine growing region. As Neil and I walked back through the town we passed at least a dozen tasting rooms representing local vineyards. They seem to set up in town rather than at their cellar doors – which we though would make it very convenient for the tasters!