Finding and Enjoying the Snake

From Portland, we traveled on east to Kennewick, Washington, then Clarkston at Hells Canyon Snake River.  On our way we drove through beautiful country.

A painted barn

A fence decorated with wheels

A blooming field of canola

And lots of grain elevators--at least that is what they are called in our part of the country.

And finally, the Snake River, which provides the border between Washington and Idaho, at least in this area.

We enjoyed this view out the front door side of our trailer.  In the river you can see a barge being pushed on the river.  The Snake begins in Wyoming and flows eventually into the Columbia River.

This dugout canoe was along the river's edge.

We could watch this riverboat.  If you look closely, you can see small boats between the shore and the large white boat.  We watched them speed by us then discovered they were getting ready to take riverboat passengers on a tour of Hells Canyon--a stretch of white water near Clarkston.

One day we drove into town and walked along a riverside trail.  We saw the riverboat coming in.

The hills across the river were brown.

This is a view of our trail.  It was very well maintained.

Here is a flock of Canada geese along the trail.

Multnomah Falls

We drove to Portland on Father's Day.  The following day, we visited the Rose City Cemetery where two of my great grandparents are buried. A great uncle is also there.

The next day we took a spectacular hike on the trail to the top of Multnomah Falls above the Columbia River.  We have been in this area before but never stopped to see any of the scenic falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

This was our first view of the falls.  Notice that there are no people visible in front of us.

As we got closer, there were a few visitors.  The falls are high and stunning. The upper falls are 542 feet long; the lower falls descend 69 feet.

As you hike to the top, there is a bridge that crosses between the upper and lower falls.

Here is the upper falls.

And the lower falls.

In 2017 a massive wildfire, named the Eagle Creek fire, raged in the forest surround Multnomah Falls.  As we hike, we could see evidence of the fire.

The falls are a major tourist attraction.  In this photo you can see two parking lots for visitors, the closer lot is off of Historic Highway 30, the distant one off I-84.

As we came down the trail we encountered crowds of visitors.  We had started our hike up about 9 am.  This is what we saw about an hour later.

As we traveled around Oregon we saw lots of red-leafed plants.  They provide a good contrast to the lush green foliage in the area.

We were glad we took the time to enjoy the Columbia River Gorge. We even stopped to see another falls, Latourell Falls.

Vista House at Crown Point sits at a location with great views of the river gorge.

This is what we saw from the view point.

Old Oregon Towns

We were both born and raised in Colorado, which became a state in 1876.  It has been rather amazing to discover how old Oregon is.  It become a state in 1859.  Obviously, the Oregon trail migration came before the Colorado gold rush.    We have been in Astoria and Portland  and earlier in Salem here in Oregon.

Salem was organized in 1842 and became the capital city of the Territory in 1851.  Astoria was founded in 1811 and became the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.  Portland was founded in 1843.

We enjoyed walking around downtown Astoria

Astoria is a fishing port and there were lots of fishing boats in the harbor.

Plants will grow just about anywhere in this climate.  These pilings along the harbor were sprouting foliage.  We saw this everywhere.

As we walked around Portland, we saw a number of bronze statues.  We were always sure who they depicted but we enjoyed them.

Look at this elk up on a roof.

A dolphin, I guess.

We spotted these men near our RV park.  They inspired and led the construction of the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway.

These old cities are attractive and very interesting.

Fort Clatsop

Oregon, the Columbia River, Montana, the Missouri River are all in the Lewis and Clark area. The first time we were in this area, we learned a lot about the Corps of Discovery and their harrowing trip across the newly acquired lands of the Louisiana Purchase. President Thomas Jefferson sent them out to learn about this huge addition to the United States. They spent 3 months of the winter of 1805-06 just south of what is now Astoria. They built Fort Clatsop which is now located in the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park.

One day we visited the park and hiked maybe 3 miles on the Fort to Sea Trail through the forest.

You can get an idea of how massive the trees are today by comparing John to the tree to the right.  I wonder what the trees looked like 2,014 years ago.

We did stop in the National Park visitor center there to look briefly at the exhibits about Lewis and Clark. But our main purpose was to get in a good walk. I have read a lot about their journey and have read their journals. On our last visit we visited 2 or 3 museums with lots of information about the trip here in 1805.

Visiting Gnat Creek

The first time we spent much time in Oregon was 2008.  After driving north along the Oregon coast, we began a 2-month stay at Gnat Creek Salmon Hatchery near Astoria, followed by 2 months at White River Wildlife Refuge south of The Dalles in eastern Oregon.

This year, after getting settled in an RV park in Astoria, we drove to Gnat Creek.  It was good to remember our time and work there.

This shows one of the fish in one of the tanks at the hatchery during this visit.  It isn't one of the salmon that are raised here.

If you click on this next photo to enlarge it, I think you can see hundreds of fingerling salmon.

This is a view of the campsite we were in while we volunteered.

In my blog post about our 2008 volunteer time at Gnat Creek, you can see what it looked like back then.  Gnat Creek

This downed tree lies along the hatchery path through the surrounding forest.  You can see how it provides a place for other plants to sprout.  It is called a nurse tree.

The temperate rain forest in the area is lush and green.  Ferns and other plants grow profusely.

Ferns at the base of some trees covered in moss.  In the background you can see Gnat Creek flowing by.

We spent a lot of our volunteer time keeping this trail cleaned for hatchery visitors  Often John trimmed back vegetation to keep the trail open and I used a blower to clean off debris.

I love these little flowers.

This is a nearby community of house boats on the John Day River.

The Oregon Garden

The Oregon Garden near Salem is an 80-acre botanical garden featuring plants of the Willamette Valley in central Oregon.  Not only do they have 4 miles of trails through the garden, we saw many beautiful plants, flowers and trees.

I had never seen conifer trees with healthy yellow needles on the ends of the branches.

I know that some of these plants are called hen and chickens but I don't know what all of them are named.

One area featured artistic pruning of the trees.  Look at this branch.

Lovely

The wetland area included flowering lily pads.

These flowers are very fragrant.  I wish I could remember what they are.  I don't have our tree book with us. It doesn't do me any good here when I leave it in Arizona.

These are delicate and pretty.

I like this mass planting of marigolds.

We saw some really interesting sunflower-shaped flowers.

The roses are spectacular in the garden.

Very attractive ground cover.

This was interesting moss.

We saw several nice water falls.

These bell-shaped flowers grow all over Oregon.  Anyone know their name?  The inside of the pink flowers are spotted.

We even saw Tinker Bell in the children's garden.

In Arizona, poppies only bloom in yellow.

We spotted the lock ness monster in one of the wetland pools.