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"I think they are practicing for summer"
Classes ended on Thursday, and on Friday we visited the aviation museum to see the big wooden seaplane. My flight home wasn't until Sunday, so Saturday was an ideal opportunity to get together with all family members present and do something Oregonic. We had a group of seven people: my brother Chris and his family, Cara and Ilex, in his car, my Mom and Dad, me, and not too distant cousin Dave in Dad's car. Got that? That's Chris, Cara and Ilex, followed at a safe distance by Dave, Dave, Dave and Victoria. We set off to cruise along the Historic Columbia River Highway.
That's the "Historic Columbia River Highway" as opposed to the "Columbia River Highway" which is IR-84 which also happens to be US-30. I need to do some research; I wonder if US-30 in Oregon is still known as the "Lincoln Highway" as it is in Ohio and Pennsylvania. (UPDATE: Apparently not; the Lincoln Highway diverges from US-30 and continues to San Francisco while US-30 heads North into Oregon.) The drive is scenic, and initially actually goes through a forest, pointing well away from the Columbia river. That changes as the road heads uphill, and a very interesting optical condition occurs. The hill is just steep enough that the highway is running well above the Columbia River, and has an unobstructed view of the river. This is particularly interesting because this unobstructed view of the river offers absolutely no view at all of either the railroad corridor, or of IR-84, both of which are running alongside the river, but down much closer to river's edge. I wonder why the historic highway is built so high up the side of the hill, and I wonder if it is because of the age of the route...if the road was built up there to protect it from the river before the various dams and other projects were built to turn the Columbia from a wild river into a useful source of irrigation, power and navigation.
There are several stopping places along the highway, several of them marked with informational signs. Our first stop was at Vista House, which is presently undergoing refurbishment and is slated to re-open in April. Our stop there was brief, as we wandered around for only a few minutes, experiencing extreme strong winds that made it difficult to even stand upright. Vista House looks like a small observatory (sans telescope) and sits on an outcropping with a commanding view of the Columbia River Gorge. Pity I wasn't able to get some photos here.
As we continued on up the road [Footnote 1] we stopped at several of the designated pull-off sites. Most offered views of various spectacular waterfalls feeding small streams that feed into the river. These are the places where we found the markers which talked a lot about the development of "road houses" along the highway. These were inns and restaurants to serve travelers along the road, usually built in locations with lovely scenic views. At one location, the sign related the story of a property owner who had attempted to clear a hillside to improve the view from his property, succeeding only in sending a mudslide down the hill and onto a passing river boat. Apparently many of the property owners either donated or sold their properties to the State and Federal park services, so their properties became the view points now enjoyed by travelers such as we.
Looking at photos I can't remember which stop was what, but the cold weather made for an interesting effect on one set of falls. The water was coming down through the trees, and the mist kicked up by not only the falling water but also by the blowing wind had frozen into an icy cloud at the top of the cliff. At another stop, the locals [Footnote 2] took a walk partway down the hill, but the rest of us decided not to follow when we noticed that going down would require walking back up again. That realization was also the reason that the locals decided not to go all the way down.
Lunchtime approached, and conveniently, we had arrived at Multnomah Falls. There is a Park Service lodge there with a restaurant on the second floor. The dining room backs up to the mountain, and the falls are clearly visible through the skylights. So naturally, I ended up sitting at the end of the table with my back to the window. Hey, there were seven of us. Someone had to do it!
After lunch, time was short, so we cruised straight over to Bonneville Dam. Apparently they offer guided tours of the facility. I'm not sure if the tour is supposed to include the fish ladder and the powerhouse. We stopped at the checkpoint for the obligatory trunk check, then drove to the island where the visitor center is located. There is an observation deck on the roof, the ground level is a gift shop, museum and interperetive center, below that is a small theater, and below that (but closed to the public for the moment) is a viewing area for the fish ladders below the water level. When we arrived, the rangers seemed more than a little disorganized, and several were involved with showing electricity demos to many children present. We were told that a tour would be starting shortly, so we waited around. When the tour failed to start ("Another 20 minutes") we decided that we probably weren't going to get a tour before we had to get back to Portland, so we ended our tour for the day and headed back to Portland.
It was an interesting outing, but I would have liked to have seen more of the dam facility. Maybe next time...
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Footnote 1: I presume we were driving "up the road" as we were generally following the river to the East. The Columbia flows to the West, so we were travelling upriver. [Return to text]
Footnote 2: That would be Chris, Cara and Ilex, of course. [Return to text]
--DCAjr
Next: Paramount's Kings Island (#1)
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