Blogs from Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, United States, North America

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We’ve had very little service for a few days plus we’ve had two long days of driving and sightseeing so I am behind in my blog! We won’t have service for the next couple days either. After breakfast at our house, we headed toward the Columbia River Gorge, particularly Multnomah Falls. I had visited this area when Nanci Bowen and I took my mom to a flower conference. Driving along the Columbia River and Historic Highway 30 is breathtaking. I couldn’t wait to get back here and share it with Terry, Karen, and Ed. Once we got on Historic highway 30 there were many places to stop. Most of those pull offs were for hikers to park and enter the hiking trails. We saw many beautiful waterfalls, most notably Multnomah. To get into Multnomah you had ... read more


We woke up this morning and took our time getting going, since we had reservations for the Columbia Gorge stern-wheeler cruise, from Portland Spirit in Cascade Locks, at 11am, boarding at 10:45am. We had booked the cruise last night on the Portland Spirit website. The cost per person was $38, and the website said the trip went one way down the Columbia River, then the next trip would go the other way up the river, but we could stay onboard for both trips at no extra charge. Since we had some time to kill, we decided to travel west from the KOA to see what kind of view we could get of Mount Hood, one of the tallest mountains around. When we got off the interstate and headed down highway 35 South. We frequently spotted Mount ... read more
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We left the KOA in Olympic Peninsula a little later than normal since we only had a 4 1/2 hour drive to Cascade Falls KOA. When we got near the bottom of the peninsula, Manoli noticed some nice views along the way, so we finally pulled into a combination gas station, hardware store and grocery store in Hood Canal. After buying a couple of coffees, we went across the street so Manoli could take some photos and collect some seashells. We continued on down towards Oregon and finally pulled off the interstate at Woodland to eat lunch. It took us a while to find a decent place to eat, but finally settled on Matt & Mandy's Family Diner, since it looked quaint and popular. The small dining room was covered with photos of veterans, from WWII ... read more
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North America » United States » Oregon » Columbia River Gorge September 13th 2019

Started off overcast and misting. Hiked Multnomah Falls, Wahkeena falls and many smaller ones along the trail. Turned into a nice sunny day.... read more
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7/31 Like most bed and breakfasts you choose a time when you would like to eat. This morning at the Portland White House, we opted to relax and enjoy the ambiance so our breakfast time was later than normal. The dining room was fully occupied save two seats which we promptly took. We were served a truly amazing breakfast. Slabs of bacon next to loads of fresh berries that were piled on top of Tiffany's Dutch German pancake accompanied by real maple syrup filled our plates. Freshly squeezed tangerine juice, coffee and opportunities for second helpings if you dared. I was eating well beyond my capacity! We were joined by many friendly people sharing their travel experiences and tips as we sat around the long dining room table. The International Rose Test Gardens were first on ... read more
International Rose Test Gardens, Portland
Portland's Japanese Gardens
Bridal Veil Falls


Geo: 45.67, -121.889After a late arrival, I stayed with a friend in a hotel near the airport. We headed out from Portland fairly early on I84 East. We had no real plan, but a couple free tourism guides that we picked up at the airport. Our first impetuous stop was Multnomah Falls. It turns out it is Oregon's top tourist attraction. I didn't look that grand from the highway, but we were eager to start seeing things. Multnomah has an interpretive center in a historic building and a couple different hiking trails. We grabbed our wind breakers and a couple of coffees from a cart out front and started up the trail to see the top of the falls (620 feet up). The path was in good condition and had several views of the falls and ... read more
Izzys for dinner
Slugs!
Stephen enjoying the sun at Lake Tahoe


We crossed back into Oregon from Washington quite late in the day, so we immediately began looking for a good place to camp. A few miles down the road, in Boardman, we found a superb little Good Sam campground. Grassy lawns stretched between shady trees with the river chuckling behind them. We went to sleep almost instantly. The next day dawned, you guessed it, cold and rainy. Seriously rainy, in this case, and we made the not-very-difficult decision of just staying put for a day. We only took a few short walks around the campground that day, but in the evening it cleared up, casting a beautiful amber glow over the park next door, where Rascal stared longingly from the shore at the Canada geese floating safely out of reach in the small harbor. The weather ... read more
Sunset Flotilla
Dog on Fire
Lava Lands


The states continually come up with surprises. New ways to explore and discover are just around the bend. Little did I know I had covered parts of the Oregon Trail months earlier only this time, I would start from its grand finale - the Colorado River. The Oregon Trail is an unknown road for most tourists travelling the US. In 1803 President Jefferson sent instructions to some guys called Lewis and Clarke to explore the Missouri River and other rivers for a direct route to the Pacific Ocean. The route they found is still partially used but not entirely because it wasn’t suitable for wagon transportation. Their 1804-06 adventure confirmed that there were two major rivers heading out of the northern Rockies but no easy route through the land from the east to the west. Therefore ... read more
2 - The open road of Oregons desert east
3 - Wallowa Lake on way to Hells Canyon
4 - Vista House the start of the beauty of hwy 30


Mount Hood and Timberline Lodge Today was a day for scenery, on a grand scale. First up was Mount Hood. Hood River the town sits on the actual Hood River, which leads to (yep) Mount Hood. The drive up starts in summer and ends in winter. The early part passes through open fields with a special view of the mountain when the clouds cooperate. The white pyramid peak dominates the horizon. The road passes into a pine covered gorge, and then into high mountainside. Snow appears at this point. The sky also started to rain, producing the look of late winter. The south side of Mount Hood has been a haven for skiers for over a century. Thanks to the mountain’s glaciers, it’s possible to ski here year round. In 1937, the Works Progr... read more
Timberline Lodge
Central Hall timberline lodge
Pioneer Woman's Gravesite


We started the day at the Vita Cafe. Megan had the Sloppy Biscuit sandwich and I had the faux Turkey Florentine. The service is always a bit hit & miss at the Vita, but it was more about the "miss" today... We waited over 30 minutes for our food and the place was only a quarter full. After breakfast we stopped at QFC for snacks and sunscreen. We then hit highway 84 and headed east to exit 28 (the Bridal Vail exit). The trail-head is (literally) right off the exit and there happened to be a wedding going on this day... The parking lot was full and we waited a minutes to find a spot. Once we did we were off for a great 2.3 mile hike! This was definitely a medium to hard hike, with ... read more




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