Hood River & the Columbia River Gorge

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Geo: 45.7056, -121.52

After finishing our hikes at the Clarno
unit, we drove on to Hood River in the Columbia River
Gorge and our hotel for the next two nights, the Westcliff
Lodge. The lodge was originally the Vagabond Lodge
when I made the reservations but changed its name a
few weeks before our arrival. We had gotten an e-mail
announcing the name change, but I missed it and Anne,
though she remembered the e-mail, couldn't remember
the new name. So finding it was a little challenging but
after searching for a bit and actually asking for directions,
we arrived and checked in. It turned out to be a very nice
place with several buildings built right on the banks of the
Columbia River with some really pretty views. Our room
was on a ground floor of one of the buildings but still had
a nice patio with nice views of the river and well kept
grounds. Dinner was pizza at a place along the riverfront
in downtown Hood River called the Solstice Wood Fire
Cafe & Bar. Pizza was just ok, but the service was really
good. When we arrived, the place was very crowded, and
we had to wait at the bar for a table to become available.
The bartender really went above and beyond both at the
bar and later when he was our waiter for dinner.
At the bar waiting for our table, Anne asked for a good rum drink.
He said that they didn't get much call for rum drinks, but he would
whip something up and see if she liked it. He did and she did like
it. Later at our table, he had changed from bartending to waiting
tables, and our table was in his section. So Anne ordered her
traditional Bloody Mary this time, which turned out to be really
spicy hot. Later when he asked how she liked it, she said it was
good but a little spicy. A few minutes later he came back by and
noticing that she wasn't drinking it offered to make her another one
that would not be so spicy. She first said it was ok, but he assured
her it would be no trouble, so she agreed. He took the spicy one
away and returned with another that Anne pronounced much better. As
I said, the pizza was just ok, but the service was really good.

On Tuesday morning, our last full day of the trip, we first drove to the
small town of Cascade Locks where the PCT crosses the Columbia River
on the Bridge of the Gods and where Cheryl Strayed, the author of the
book Wild, ended her hike. The trail actually continues on through the state of
Washington to the Canadian border and for all of the true thru
hikers, that was the ultimate goal. For us, it was enough to see and
walk across the bridge, which is really a relatively small, very
unassuming bridge over a fairly narrow section of the river.
The actual Bridge of the Gods was a natural dam created
by the Bonneville Slide, a major landslide that dammed the river
somewhere around 1450 AD. The river eventually breached the
bridge and washed much of it away, but the event is remembered
in local legends of the Native Americans as the Bridge of the Gods.
The actual bridge, originally built in 1926 at a length of 1,127
feet, was raised and extended to 1,856 feet in 1940 due to the higher
river levels resulting from the construction of the Bonneville Dam some
4 miles downriver. The bridge is actually part of the Pacific Crest Trail
and the only way for hikers on the trail to get from Oregon to
Washington. Consequently, though it is a toll bridge, PCT hikers get
to cross for free. If you're not a trail hiker but just want to walk
across (and back), as we did, there is a $1.00 charge per person.
Crossing the bridge on foot is not for the fainthearted. The bridge
has no sidewalks, so walkers share the vehicle travel lane with cars,
RVs and big trucks. But it all seems to work. Speed limit is 15 mph
and the toll booth operator says there have been no accidents on the
bridge span in her 18 years working there.

After our short hike across the bridge and back, we effectively wasted
the rest of the day trying to decide what to do. We had planned to
hike a bit more on nearby trails but could not decide on the best
trail. We finally just drove to the Hood River waterfront park and
walked it from end to end, about three miles, so combined with our
earlier walks to and across the bridge, we managed to “get our miles
in.” Afterwards, we drove back to our hotel and repacked our luggage
for the trip home on the next day.

Dinner that evening was at a small Wine Bar called the White
Buffalo. We shared a really good smoked salmon spread with pita
points and though I usually like to sample local beers, this time I
had a glass of an exceptionally good chardonnay from a small local
vineyard. Nice way to spend our last evening.

On Wednesday morning, we packed up and
took a leisurely drive back to the Portland airport for our 1:00 PM
flight home. Everything was on time and though we had a long layover
in Atlanta and didn't get home until around 2:00 AM on Thursday, we
were happy to be back.

Here are just a very few pictures of the bridge and a couple of the views
from the motel.

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Photos

The Bridge of the Gods
The entrance to the bridge from the Washington state side. Note the PCT emblem to the right of the sign.

The picnic area
The picnic area at the motel. Our room was on the bottom floor in the corner of the building to the right.

Sternweeler
A sternwheeler that took tourists for a ride on the river - one hour for around $30 per person. We passed.