Columbia River Gorge & Mt. Hood Loop

Today was supposed to be a drive through some of the Pacific Northwest’s most stunning natural sights.  Mother Nature had other ideas.  We got up, checked out of the Marriott in Portland and caught a cab to the airport to pick up a rental car.

SIDE RANT - Our cab driver spoke no English - NONE!  How is it possible to drive a cab for a living when you can’t read the signs?  He was Russian, and seemed like a nice enough guy, but other than the word “airport”, he had no idea what I was trying to tell him.  I was hoping he would take us to arrivals instead of departures.  I swear I think we spoke more Russian than he spoke English. 

We rented a car for our last couple days here so we could get out of the cities for a few days and see some of the natural beauty of the area.  As a car lunatic, I was hoping to channel my inner “Top Gear” and write a “review” of something interesting like a Range Rover LR3 or even a Mustang drop top.  Sadly, our rental turned out to be a black on black Chevy Impala.  It sucks – review over. 

We decided to drive the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood loop today.  It’s about 180 miles of beautiful long range views – at least that’s what I’ve been told.  Rain and fog basically made for zero visibility every time we got to a scenic spot.  After a surprisingly good breakfast at a place called “Shari’s” (which was kind of like a Denny’s, but better) we drove along the Historic Columbia River Highway from Troutdale to our first stop at Vista House.  Opened in 1918, this Oregon treasure sits 733 feet above the river and is supposed to have fantastic views of the Gorge and Cascade Range.  This is what we saw:

The rest of the historic highway drive was nice, even with the rain.  There are a number of great waterfalls right along the road and we stopped at a few of them.  None are more spectacular than Multnomah Falls, Oregon’s most visited natural sight.

Multnomah Falls

Our next stop was the Bonneville Locks and Dam.  We really enjoyed this facility.  One of the coolest features is an underwater viewing station on the fish ladder where you can watch the salmon, sturgeon, or whatever (in our case a creepy amount of Lampreys that were sucking on the glass) as they head up the river.  I also learned about a job that I never knew existed – fish counter.  There is a guy who sits in a dark “control room” and manually counts the different kinds of fish as they pass through the ladder.  It looks very high-tech, but even with all the cameras and control boards, it basically comes down to a guy working 8-hour shifts pressing a button every time he sees a fish.

Bonneville Dam



We stopped in Cascade and had a bowl of soup at the Locks Café before heading on to the town of Hood River.  From there we started the climb up Mt. Hood, but not before stopping at a road side place so Nel could get some cherries.  They grow a lot of them up here, and the drive up Mt. Hood is spotted with orchards.  I don’t eat the things, but she said they were great and finished them off in no time.  We thought the weather was finally going to cooperate as we got closer to the mountain.  The sun was shining and we had some gorgeous views of the summit.

Mt. Hood (the only time we could see it all day - including when we were on it)

Unfortunately, Mother Nature was only teasing us.  As we climbed to the Timberline Lodge at around 6000 feet, the weather turned awful and we could barely see the trees on the side of the road, much less any long range views.  Timberline Lodge is beautiful building dating back to 1937.  It’s still a very popular ski lodge in the winter and was one of the more rustic and charming mountain top lodges I’ve ever been to.  We stopped there to eat, and while we didn’t get to see any of the views the place is so famous for, we did get to play in some snow…in JULY!

Braving the weather at Timberline Lodge

Branelle starting a snow ball fight with her crippled husband - How mean!

 

After leaving the lodge, we headed down the mountain and back towards Portland.  The weather, of course, got nice again.  Nel wanted to make one more stop – at some giant fabric store called Fabric Depot.  It was ridiculous!  I don’t have a lot of experience with these things, but I can’t imagine a larger fabric place (nor do I want to).  I’m not sure what she was looking for, but she talked me into picking out something so her mother (who is really a great seamstress) could make me something.  It was a little overwhelming, but I finally picked out what I felt was both the coolest and ugliest pattern there for a pair of night pants.  BIG PIMPIN’!

Eat your heart out Hef!

 We've moved to a hotel in Vancouver, Washington, and are planning to head up to Mount St. Helens tomorrow.  Let's hope the weather in The Evergreen State is more cooperative than the weather in The Beaver State.