Columbia River Gorge a National Scenic Area

Aloha Everyone,

The first waterfall we stopped was Laturell Falls just off Historic Route 30. We climbed three sets of stone stairs to reach the landing to take our photos. The patch of iridescent green moss was so vibrant and vivid that it was challenge to try to balance colors.

Ed is an entomologist and works for the Oregon State of Agriculture. He is a very interesting and accomplished individual. Ed played violin at Oregon State University Concert Orchestra, an Academic All-American in football played the position of tight-end. Dawne is originally from Texas and now works for the Oregon Department of Education. Both had so much to share that we reluctantly said our goodbyes.

The Bridal Falls was our next waterfall stop. We hiked about one-mile round trip allowing me to squeeze yoga practices along the way.

The small trail to the Bridal Falls was like walking in an enchanted forest. Except for the warning signs which read "Be aware of poison ivy", everything was perfect.

I think this was one of the prettiest bridal falls I have seen in my life.

Here is a view of the Columbia River seen from the trail.

Multnomah Falls is one of the most photographed waterfalls. I recall seeing this in calendars and clearly remember that our son used it as a subject for his painting in his high school art class. The upper fall drops 542 ft and the lower one to 69 ft.

Steve from Beverton, Oregon was cycling with his friends.

The last waterfall we saw is called Horse Tail.

From there we proceeded to Bonnevilke Lock & Dam.

The visitor center managed by the US Army Corp of Engineers had many displays tracing the history of the dam.

The salmon ladder or water ladder can be seen from the roof of the building. One is able to watch salmons swim upstream, but while we were there, none were seen. In the basement, J.J. and I stopped by to look at the narrow water passage where salmons are counted as they swim upstream. The counting is being done manually. It sounds like rather unchallenging job for a Fish Biologist to do. We were told that the highest number ever counted in a day occurred the 2nd week of September 2014. The number was 68,000!!! Very impressive.

Herman, the White Sturgeon lives in this pond. He is 70 years old, 10 ft long and weighs 450 pounds. I stared and stared for nearly 10 minutes but today Herman was shy and elusive.

This is called "Cinderella Pumpkin".

The lovely lady behind the counter also pointed to a normal colored but very bumpy pumpkin.

This country store is just a couple of yards away from our RV park.

Finally, my sincere apologies for misplacing the sheet of paper where I wrote the name of the lady with the pumpkins.

Aloha -- Cathi

Corbett, Oregon on the Columbia River Historic Highway

Aloha Everyone

The small town of Corbett is located between the Sandy River and Crown Point on the Columbia River Historic Highway, Interstate 84. This is at the mouth of the scenic Columbia River Gorge. We are staying 2 nights at the Crown Point RV Park. After checking in, we drove to Portland Women's Forum, a viewpoint on the promontory that provides unobstructed views of the Columbia River Gorge.

Marker for the Portland Women's Forum.

If you look closely, white dots on the river are actually sailboards.

Vista House was the second scenic stop this afternoon. The weather is still sunny and very pleasant at 73 degrees Fahrenheit. However outside is extremely windy and I have difficulty opening Honu's door.

A charming country store is within an easy walking distance. However J.J. and I purchased enough provisions from Trader Joe's to prepare meals for the next couple of days.

J.J. and I love meeting people on our travels. This morning while I was practicing yoga asanas, I met Keri from Portland. Champoeg RV ground was family friendly. Each loop had about 6 RV parking stalls surrounding a spacious grassy field,  perfect for children to run around while adults socialized.

Here is Keri with her pet, Ollie.

Aloha -- Cathi

To Chanpoeg Bypassing Salem

Aloha Everyone,

Salem is the capitol of Oregon and the second largest city in the state after Portland. Located in the middle of beautiful, lush Willamette River Valley and residents choose to live here because of good quality of life.

Our entry and exit to Salem was in a haste. We had two objectives; one to find a nice restaurant for lunch and more importantly to find self-service print shop where we can do transfer files, print, sign, scan so we can email the document out.

Geppetto's Italian Restaurant had no curve appeal. The fact it was located next to Office Max was the best reason for our walking in the door.

The service was excellent. My Italian Vegetarian Pasta and J.J.'s Spaghetti Alla Carbonara were good but American in taste.

Employees at the Office Max store we went were cheerful and provided us with excellent service. One of them voiced her concern about the imminent merger of Office Depot and Office Max but then she shrugged her shoulders and said, 'But not much we could do.  It's all settled upstairs."

Honu does not like cities. So our choice was to find a place outside of Salem. Champoeg Is a state heritage area and about an hour North of Salem. J.J. had an intuition that a RV in front of us with British Columbia license plate was also headed to the same destination.

There were no directional signs but our Honu followed the BC license.

At last we arrived at Champoeg. The BC driver told J.J. with a smile that he thought that we were going to the same place.

This camp site is another park-like setting. Honu is also parked under a canopy of golden leaves.

Aloha -- Cathi

Covered Bridges, Waterfalls, and Detroit Lake

Aloha Everyone,

Lane County, Oregon has 20 covered bridges and 14 are still open to traffic. These wooden covered bridges are attractive, photogenic, durable and practical providing safe and secure method of crossing state's rivers. Goodpasture Bridge is along Route 126 just east of the town of Vida.

McKenzie River, originates in the High Cascade seem gentle and placid at times and mighty and powerful at another until it joins the Willanette River in Portland.

Belknap Bridge was the 2nd covered bridge we crossed today.

 

Here the McKenzie River showed a lots of whitecaps indicating rapid waters as it impatiently flowed down stream.

Sahalie Falls is an amazing , powerful waterfall of the McKenzie River in the Willamette National Forest. The fall crashes over the ancient lava cliffs and with mighty power and sound falls more than 100 feet.

I tried to capture the rainbows created by the fall.

In the Cascade Volcanic chain more than 3000 large and small volcanoes have erupted over 5 million years. Along Route 126 and elsewhere it is common to see the remnants of the ancient volcanic lava flows.

There is unsettled debates concerning forest fire fighting techniques. Whether it is better and more natural way to let the fire burn its course is still debatable. But for us it is disheartening to see mountains after mountains of charred trees.

A beautiful, perfect cone-shaped mountain is called Black Butte. J.J. and I hope to get closer so we can share more photos and its stories.

Our lunch stop was a little town of Sisters. The town's architectural motif follows that of an old frontier town.  However the entire place looked artificial and touristic.

We chose Takoda's Restaurant located off Main Street. Takoda in Sioux means " Friend to Everyone'.

Thanks to Karen at Mckenzie River Ranger Station, we found a perfect camping site at Detroit Lake State Campground for tonight.

Detroit Lake is a forest-ringed canyon reservoir in the Cascade Mountains.

Here is the view from Honu's living room.

Tonight we enjoyed the Anjou Pears we purchased from Rich who has a roadside fruit stand in Sisters.

Aloha -- Cathi