World United States Oregon The Dalles

Northwest 2009

Columbia River Gorge Sep 7, 2009

Saw the Columbia River Gorge today - beautiful! We drove east on highway 30 and I84 (only road in the area) in Oregon making several stops to see waterfalls and overlooks in the rain. It seemed like every time we got out for a short hike the rain would get harder. Finally, we gave up and saw the last waterfall from the vehicle - we will have to go back later to get a better look since that one Multnomah Falls. That one is really nice with a nice falls at the top of the hill then a 620 foot drop just before it hit the ground near the road. We stopped by Bonneville Lock and Dam Visitor Center where they have a unique fish ladder. The fish ladder looked normal on the outside but they have built an underwater viewing area where we watched the fish swim upstream, float back downstream and repeat the process until they finally swam on upstream past the viewing area. The Bonneville Fish Hatchery is nearby and we saw a film on how the hatchery works and a couple of huge sturgeon, the largest was 10’ long, 425 pounds and over 60 years old - he was a monster - looked more like a shark than a sturgeon! We drove on to Hood River, OR for lunch overlooking the Columbia River and the most kite boarders and wind surfers we have seen in one location. Apparently, the Columbia River is one of the premier places in the world for that. Lucky for us, the rain stopped as we drove into town. We drove further east to The Dalles with nice views along the way. Then we crossed the river and drove back along the north side of the gorge in Washington. The views on this side were even better since we were on a highway instead of the freeway and closer to the river. We crossed back into Oregon at Cascades Locks and got a great view of Multnomah Falls from the interstate - new perspective because we could see the higher falls which isn’t visible when standing beside it.

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