Travels with Val: Columbia River Gorge

I got a phone call on Wednesday night asking what I was doing the next day.  I told Lacey not a whole lot.  She then asked if I wanted to go down to Oregon and drive around the Gorge.  I told her sure.  She asked if I could drive and that we would leave around 6 a.m.  I agreed.

I looked for activities to go and do before I called her back later that evening.  I know they wanted to go to Multnomah Falls but what else?  I've been to the area a few times and there was plenty to do and see I just needed to know what all they wanted to see or were willing to see.  I called Lacey just before bedtime and asked her what she and Nana wanted to see and she said what ever is near Multnomah Falls.  We will be find with anything really.  I said okay and looked at the area map some more.  The weather was suppose to be awesome so our views should be spectacular.

I went to bed and slept like poo.  I think I might have gotten 3 or so hours of sleep.  I couldn't get comfortable and my mind was excited about our adventure.  When my alarm went off I was like, uggghh. So tired but so excited for our travel to Oregon.  I got up and made sure I had everything.  My snacks, my camera stuff and my GPS.  I put on shorts, wasn't sure if it was going to be warm enough for a tank top so I wore a t-shirt and a sweatshirt. I even took some vitamins to keep me going.

I got everything into the Escape and headed over next door to pick up Lacey and Nana.  We left for Oregon around 6:30.  Our first stop was Multnomah Falls.   I told them it would be best to stop here first before all of the tourists got here and the area became really busy.  They agreed.

We got there around 8:30, parked the car and went under the freeway and into the park.  We took a few pictures from this vantage point of the falls, went into the restroom and visited the gift shop just to see what they had.  I wanted a few stickers and postcards.

We walked up to the landing and took some more pictures.  We decided to walk up to the Benson bridge.  We followed Nana's pace and stopped a few times to admire the views.

We got up to the top and noticed they did a great job fixing the bridge.  It didn't even look like a boulder hit it about a year ago.   We enjoyed the views, took pictures and I told them that there was a trail that lead us to the top of the falls.  Nana would not make it up there plus it would take about an hour to go up there and back down.  I knew they wanted to see other attractions in the area so we just stick with the bridge and then worked our way down.  Lacey asked a lady to take our picture and she ended up taking 165 of the same picture.  She must of held her finger on the button too long.  Haha.

I went and looked for Tourist Season (GC58Y0G), it was one of the newer ones in the area I didn't have yet.  The coords bounced all over the place and misdirected me three times.  I finally stopped looking at the GPS and finally found it over by the dumpster.  I hurried and logged it before someone saw me.  It was getting busier by the minute.

We used the restroom and went into the gift shop one more time.  We walked back to the Escape and got back onto I-84 and headed back towards Troutdale because there were more food choices and Nana wanted more food choices.  We got off at the exit and they decided on Dairy Queen.  We got in line at the perfect time because a ton of Japanese kids from across the street walked in.  We ate our burgers and decided on what we wanted to do with the rest of our day.  I suggested the historic highway 30 that had quite a few waterfalls along it.  They sounded excited so that's what we planned to do.

We found exit 22 and followed Nuvi up the hill to Corbett and onto our first great view of the gorge.  We stopped at Portland Woman's Forum State Park for a few minutes to take pictures.  I found out there was also and earthcache here.  I worked on that as Nana and Lacey admired the view. Chanticleer Point Crafted by Cataclysms (GC290Y7) was a pretty straight forward cache.  All the information was on the sign and it took me maybe 5 minutes to answer all the questions.  I had Lacey take my picture for my log.

We moved on to Vista House Crown Point.  I have always wanted to come up here to see what this was.  I have been up and down on I-84 several times and have always been curious of this building.  Lucky us, this location also had a cache.  We got out and all scattered around the building.  There was a gift shop, a restroom and an information booth.  I talked to a few ladies who were handing out some pamphlets.  We went up to the viewing area and the view was breathtaking.

I went back downstairs and grabbed the cache, Oregon's Crown (Point) Jewel (GC2RJEY), before someone saw me.  I got it from its hidey spot quickly but had to wait until the muggles went inside before I could put it back.  I had to be pretty sneaky.  We went back up to the top of the building for one more great view of the gorge before going back to the Escape and moving onto the next attraction.

Latourell Falls is a 224 foot plunge waterfall.  We parked the Escape and Nana decided to sit this one out so Lacey and I walked briskly down the trail to view the falls.  We noticed you could walk down to the falls and get your picture taken with it so we did, and...we got soaked!  Our whole backsides were drenched!  Luckily it was a warm day so our shorts and socks could dry out quickly.  We took a slug of pictures and got back to Nana before she baked.

We took a brief stop by Sheppards Dell Falls.  It was a short walk down a well maintained path.  We were only there for about 10 minutes.

From there we drove another mile east to Bridal Veil Falls.  It was a short walk to the vantage point of the 118 foot, two tiered horsetail waterfall.  There is a post office in the nearby community of Bridal Veil. Many couples have their wedding invitations shipped there in order to have the town's postmark applied to them.

We parked and headed down at Nana's speed.  When we got to the fall viewpoint it was definitely worth the walk.  There were a handful of people there also admiring the falls.  We walked back to the Escape and stopped by one more falls.

Horsetail Falls was our last stop along the Historic Columbia River Highway.  It is a 214 foot waterfall with a 180 degree view from the viewing area off the road.  If it was warmer you could swim in the pool down below.  We took some time enjoying the area.

We needed some gas and our waterfall tour was done so we moved east towards the next biggest town, Cascade Locks.  I told them they had food, gas and a really cool bridge that took you back over to Washington.  We drove the 5 miles and made it to Cascade Locks.  We stopped at the bottom of the bridge and I showed them the mural, the bridge and I grabbed the cache that was on the nearby trail, Catwalk (GC4X6GK) it was hidden pretty well inside of a tree.  I actually was stumped for a while until I saw the yard decoration in the form of a metal cat.

We went back to the Escape and got gas at the nearby Shell Station.  I did remember we were in Oregon and we do not pump it ourselves.  Sally paid for the gas and bought us each some cold drinks.  We tipped our attendant and headed over the Bridge of the Gods into Washington.  We ate some snacks while we drove Hwy 14.

We got a hold of Brandon, one of our good friends who has a "ranch" outside of Vancouver in Battleground, and he gave us the address to come see him before we went home.  I haven't seen him in a couple years.  We missed his driveway but managed to fix our error.  We visited for a while and took a picture.

We made it home just before dark.  I dropped them off next door and came home to relax.  I fell asleep soon after.  5 a.m. does a number on you.

Next Adventure:  Kayaking with Ben