Oregon 2008: Day 5: Columbia River Gorge
Woke up, had coffee at the yuppie coffee place across the street from Katie's place, then headed to the Columbia River Gorge on I-84E to check out what the Pacific Northwest is known for: lush green forests and rivers.
Practically everything was right off the freeway, which made it convenient. First stop was Wahkeena Falls, which subtley cascades down the mountainside (242' of vertical drop), unlike most waterfalls that everyone sees on TV that have a preciptious drop. It's right off the road and is very pretty, plus it's right next to some other, more famous waterfalls.
Next stop, the famed Multnomah Falls, just a half mile down the road. This is what most people think of as a dramatic waterfall, and with a bridge spanning the break between the upper and lower halfs, it's very picturesque. 542' of drop for the upper tier, 69' for the lower tier, and including some additional drop, it's 620' of drop-- very tall and very pretty. Fortunately we avoided tourist season, so we were mostly free to pose like idiots in front of the camera and make fools out of ourselves. A quick one mile hike including crossing the Benson Footbridge to the top of the falls lead to even more great views from Larch Mountain Lookout. Even on a off-season it was reasonably busy, if still peaceful enough to appreciate the place...
Next stop was to find lunch and let Erik head back to Eugene for school. Headed over to a cafeteria-type place in Cascade Locks, adjacent to the Bridge of the Gods, which crosses into Stevenson, Washington. Fairly simple food, but not bad. We weren't expecting anything good, but we asked the park employees where we could get some local food instead of a chain restaurant. This worked! The view of the Columbia River from the windows and the locals selling whole salmon and partial salmon out of the backs of trucks in the parking lot were a nice touch, too.
mmmmmmm salmon... the whole salmons were pretty good sized and looked ALMOST tasty enough to try to pack in ice and haul on the airplane. Fortunately sanity set in...
Said goodbye to Erik, then instead of seeing more waterfalls, Majed and I took a brief detour into Washington. It was right there, we would have been remiss to NOT make the detour! Clearly a tourist town complete with riverboat moored at the pier, Stevenson was tiny, pricey, and evidently just entering the modern age of high speed internet. Locals must go broke at the grocery store there, either that or the price of Tilamook cheese must be inversely proportional to the distance from the factory.
Crossed back into Oregon (the toll was the princely sum of $1 each way), then hiked up the Eagle Creek trail to Punch Bowl Falls. We weren't actually looking for Punch Bowl Falls, but I can't remember what it was that Majed was actually looking for-- I don't think we actually found it? Either way, we hiked on and on til we saw the biggest of the Punch Bowl Falls, realized we were not in the right place, consulted with some locals who couldn't figure out what we were talking about, either, then shut up and enjoyed the place.
We then ended up driving in circles a bit as we tried to find Horsetail Falls. Right off the road? Yes. Did the road exits cooperate? Only sort of. We played with the camera and had fun, then figured we should hike up to the upper portion, which you can get a full 360 view-- even directly behind it. We decided to be badass and run the whole trail up; it was only 4/10ths of a mile and the falls are only 176' of elevation. *ahem* Yes, that was a mistake. We made it in less than 10 minutes, but not before the elevation kicked our butts. Majed has video of it somewhere. Next time we'll just swim straight up the waterfall. *grins* The sheer novelty of being behind a waterfall is always good fun, and Upper Horsetail falls is unique. 4/10ths of a mile is worth the effort.
Never made it to Bridal Veil Falls; we both forgot about it, and by the time Katie reminded us of it, we were both well on the way back to Portland and going to run out of daylight. Oops. There were some other scenic views in Washington that we had to skip, too-- they'll have to be for another trip.
Came back, relaxed, had dinner at San Sai off NW 21st Ave and NW Irving St in Portland. Chain Japanese food, but this one pretended to be more like a Japanese restaurant than most San Sai locations-- plus this area of Portland was another nice couple blocks of bars and restaurants. Not very lively on a Monday night, but might be worth checking out on a weekend on a future visit.
Sadly there are no pictures after about 5pm: my Panasonic DMC-FZ5 died then. =( Fortunately you're not missing out on too much, 'cause Katie had to be at work at something like 6am, and both Majed and I had to be at the airport at something like 5am-- me to head back to LAX, and Majed off to Hawaii. Lucky bastard! t'was a fun trip...
