Category Archives: Waterfalls

waterfalls

September 20, 2014 Kings Canyon National Park

We left Yosemite and fortunately did not have to travel back on the same curvy mountainous road we arrived on. Instead we took the road through the park which involved driving through four park tunnels which fortunately were high enough for the RV to pass through safely. We had planned on stopping by Mariposa Grove as we exited the south entrance of the park. Mariposa Grove was such a long drive from our campground we decided to wait and visit the grove as we exited the park since it was on the way. Mariposa Grove is the park’s largest stand of 500 giant sequoias. Since it was after Labor Day and not the weekend we felt confident we would have no problem finding a parking place for the RV and car. To our amazement, as we neared the parking areas of Mariposa Grove, all the parking lots were full and rangers were directing traffic to other areas of the park. This meant we would have to somehow find a parking spot for both vehicles and catch a shuttle bus to and from the grove. This was all a bit much for a travel day, so we decided to save the grove for when we come back someday to see the falls in the park in late spring or early summer.

We continued on to Coarsegold, California where we spent one night at a very nice Escapees park. We were warmly welcomed and immediately invited to their Happy Hour which we attended after getting settled into our campsite. We enjoyed meeting and talking with many of the people living and visiting there. We are so glad we became members of Escapees since we have enjoyed their parks, rallies and went to Baja Mexico with a group of Escapees last February. The Coarsegold area had recently been impacted by wildfires and the air was a bit smoky while we were there.

The next day we left early for several days of dry camping at Azalea Campground in Kings Canyon National Park. Once again we had to unhook the car and drive separately as we had a steady climb of 6,000 feet on Kings Highway to reach the campground along a curvy mountainous road. We expected the park to be fairly empty since this park is not as popular as Yosemite and it was after Labor Day. We didn’t have a reservation and we were quite surprised to find the park very crowded with weekend campers. We had to ride around the campground for awhile before finding a spot that would work for us. This is a nice campground but it is challenging to find level spots. We finally settled on a spot that was not as level as we would have liked and we were unable to get satellite tv. The next day was Sunday and the park emptied out and we were able to move to a much nicer site that was level and the satellite tv worked great.

Sunday after changing campsites we decided to spend some time exploring Kings Canyon. Kings Canyon National Park is located in the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range. It includes some of the largest trees in the world, one of the deepest canyons in the United States, and some of the highest mountain peaks in the contiguous United States. We started by watching the movie on the park at the visitors center and then set out for General Grant Grove to see the General Grant Tree, the second largest living tree in the world.

General Grant Tree

It is 267 feet tall, over 3,000 years old and is known as our nation’s Christmas Tree. General Grant Grove is comprised of 154 acres of magnificent sequoias and there are paved walkways where you can stroll the area.

Trees from the Grant Grove parking lot

The through the tree view

Inside the tree that is as big as a large room

General Grant Grove is part of King’s Canyon National Park and was established by Congress in 1890. John Muir first visited KIngs Canyon from Yosemite in 1873 and lobbied to have the area preserved. We are so very fortunate that our forefathers had the wisdom to preserve these beautiful parks so many years ago!

When we first started up the pathway Bill was stung on his hand by a bee. He never saw the bee but only felt the sting. Later, on our way back down to the car I suddenly felt a terrible pain and stinging on my inner arm. I looked down and saw what appeared to be a yellow jacket. I think he must have been on my arm and when I put my arm down to my side he was trapped and stung me. The strange thing was the bee would not let go or stop stinging. As much as I frantically tried to get him off he was fighting to hold on and kept stinging. I finally turned to Bill in desperation and he managed to get the bee off. By this time the pain and stinging was horrible and I stood there amid the sea of tourists in General Grant Grove sobbing. What a sight! Fortunately we had a cooler of cold drinks in the car with several ice packs and I was able to get ice on my arm right away. Even with the ice the stinging pain continued for several hours. Never thought I would encounter killer bees in General Grant Grove! Do you think it is because I am from the south?? This grove was named for Ulysses S. Grant and there is a tree in the grove named Ulysses.

There were many activities to choose from in the park and we debated whether we should next take the 46 mile round trip on Kings Canyon Scenic Byway into the canyon since the road was a curvy mountainous road which dropped 3,000 feet onto the canyon floor. We were so glad we did since the views of the canyon were magnificent. Bill is a wonderful photographer but even he found it difficult to capture the beauty of the canyon on camera. I have no words to adequately describe the wonders of the canyon. The canyon valley floor was carved by glaciers during the Ice Age.

Roaring River, very clear water

Looking into Kings Canyon

Along the way we stopped at Roaring River Falls. We were skeptical whether we would see any running water but decided a little exercise wouldn’t hurt and made the short hike to the falls along a nice paved trail. We were pleasantly surprised to see a rather nice little falls.

Roaring River Falls

We continued driving on the canyon floor until we reached “The Roads End”. Here they had many parking areas and a small building where you could get wilderness permits for overnight hiking trips into the canyon. They had trails, one of which led to Muir’s Rock, Muir talked many times from this rock, the same rock where a picture of John Muir was taken and later used in the film on the park at the visitors center.

Muir rock, where he and others sat and enjoyed the Kings Canyon

We headed back and marveled at the views of the canyon from the opposite direction. It was now late in the day and the sun was reflecting off the canyon walls.

September 18, 2014 Yosemite National Park Part 2

Leave a reply

On our next visit to the park we decided to drive to Glacier Point. As I said before, it is quite a drive to get anywhere in the park and this was two hour drive each way from the campground, but well worth the effort. Glacier Point gives a panoramic view of Yosemite Valley and Half Dome. There is a paved walkway which takes you to various lookout points with views 3,214 feet down into the valley. It was really neat to look at the park from above and see the roads we had traveled and bridges we had crossed.

A viewpoint at Glacier Point

Half Dome as viewed from the Glacier Point viewpoint

The valley below Half Dome

The Yosemite Valley as viewed from Glacier Point

Half Dome

Half Dome is 8,842 FT

Beautiful Half Dome

Zoomed view of Half Dome with several people that hiked to the top

Zoomed view of North Dome and Basket Dome

Yosemite National Park is known for its waterfalls, and we had been warned in other blogs that the waterfalls in the park were dried up due to the severe drought as well as late summer heat.

In the spring Yosemite Falls runs off the mountainside

Nevada Falls in upper right and Vernal Falls in lower left

317 FT Vernal Falls blowing in the wind. Those are people in the pool below.

594 FT Nevada Falls

The best time to see the waterfalls is late spring/early summer, and we hope to someday return earlier in the year to Yosemite. From our viewpoint at Glacier Point we were surprised and delighted to see two waterfalls far in the distance; Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls, with a little water still flowing.

While in Yosemite we were saddened to hear of the devastating wildfire which swept through the town of Weed, California. You may recall this sweet little town was our home base for 4 days over Labor Day while we visited Mount Shasta. This town was where we found the geocache on the totem pole at the beginning of the Alaskan Highway, and also near the metal sculpture garden memorial to those who served our country. From the news reports the fire was very devastating and the town will have a long road to recovery. Also during our stay in Yosemite we heard of wildfires near Lake Tahoe which we had visited just a week before. One of the campers in our campground in Yosemite told us they had just left Lake Tahoe and had to drive a different route out because some of the roads were closed. We also closely followed reports of wildfires on our current projected route out of Yosemite to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park.

We hope that this video link below made from Glacier Point will be easy for you to view.

http://youtu.be/98ZIpWStoVk

September 16, 2014 Yosemite National Park Part 1

1 Reply

We had two main goals for our summer travels. One was Glacier National Park in Montana and the other was Yosemite National Park in California. Bill in particular had been wanting to visit Yosemite for some time. Just as wildfires in the northern Cascades altered our route to Glacier,

We finally made it to the world famous Yosemite NP

we followed closely and somewhat anxiously the wildfires near Yosemite. A couple weeks before our scheduled arrival, we read news reports that hikers had been evacuated from an area in Yosemite. We checked the latest reports on the Yosemite website and proceeded with our travels. Little did we know the stressful trip to follow.

We decided It was best not to take the route which would have taken us through all the traffic in South Tahoe, especially since the road is hilly and they were having a big bike race on our travel day. We took Highway 88 toward the Nevada/California border. After passing into California we had to cross Carson Pass with an elevation of 8,573 feet. With a grade of 8% for twenty miles, our brakes overheated twice and we had to stop to let them cool. As if that wasn’t enough, we still had to make the climb into Yosemite. We had been warned about New Priest Grade Road to Yosemite from a fellow RV blogger, so when we reached the foot of the mountain we unhooked the car and I drove the car to help minimize the pull on the RV. There was a sign warning drivers to turn off their air conditioning to avoid overheating, and there was a place you could stop and get water for your radiator if needed. We began the steady six mile climb up the steep winding road with a grade of 6% to 7% and a hundred curves some of which were hairpin curves. I am sure the scenery was fabulous, but with constant curves and no guardrails, our hands gripped the steering wheels and our eyes never left the road. When we reached the top we felt both a sense of relief and victory. We had conquered the road from hell!

After driving an additional twenty miles we finally arrived at our campground which was conveniently located five miles from the west entrance to Yosemite National Park. Over seven hours after leaving Carson City, we arrived at our campsite as the sun began to set.

After our stressful travel day, we decided to rest the next day. We did drive the five miles to the visitors center at the entrance to the park to get a map and some information so we could plan our next several days.

Our first day into the park we decided to drive to the Yosemite Valley Visitors Center. At 747,956 acres, Yosemite is huge, and since 94% of the park is protected wilderness, most of it is never seen except by back country hikers. There are some roads you can drive in the park, but it takes quite a bit of driving to get anywhere. The park does offer a free shuttle bus which takes you to various places in the park, but we preferred the flexibility of using our own car which was a luxury since gasoline in the park was $4.79 a gallon. It was a 23 mile drive each way to Yosemite Valley, but the views were well worth it. We were surprised at how much traffic there was even after Labor Day, and we could imagine how crowded it must be in the summer. There were many turnouts to stop and take pictures, including massive cliff faces such as El Capitan and Half Dome, two of the most popular icons in the park. El Capitan is a massive granite monolith that stands 3,593 from base

7,569 FT El Capitan has a 3,000 vertical face

to summit. Half Dome is Yosemite’s most distinctive monument. It was shaped by forces uplifting as well as erosion from rivers and glaciers. While it appears to be a dome that was

Upper Yosemite Falls is dry in SEPT

The Iconic “Half Dome”

broken off to leave a half dome shape, scientists now think the half dome is the original shape.

We stopped at Swinging Bridge to have lunch. We couldn’t figure out why it was called swinging bridge since the bridge didn’t swing, but could only guess that the swinging bridge washed away and was replaced by this more permanent bridge. We tried to have lunch at a nearby picnic area but the bees swarmed over the food to the point we were afraid we would swallow a bee so we had to retreat to the car to finish eating.

Swing Bridge doesn’t swing anymore

Diane in the Yosemite valley

Bill in Yosemite valley

A parked deer

We arrived at the parking area for the Yosemite Valley Visitors Center which was crowded with cars and people. There is actually a half mile walk from the parking lot to Yosemite Village where the visitors center is located. This is truly a busy little village for tourists with the visitors center, gift shops, a nature center, art gallery, museum, theater, Indian Culture exhibit, Wilderness Center, a market, restaurant and post office. We have found that the national parks have excellent movies on the parks, and we watched two outstanding movies on Yosemite Park at the visitors center.

The idea of establishing a national park first began with Yosemite. A man named Galen Clark was disturbed by the logging he witnessed in the park and lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development. This led President Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, to take time to sign the Yosemite Grant in 1864 to protect the land. Yosemite became the nation’s third National Park in 1890. We have been hearing a lot about naturalist John Muir since we first visited the Redwoods several months ago. Muir had a major influence on enlarging Yosemite, including a three day camping trip in the park with President Theodore Roosevelt. John Muir said of Yosemite, “It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter”. During their camping trip which included weather so cold they bedded down with forty wool blankets and awoke to five inches of new snow on the already five feet of snow already on the ground, Muir showed Roosevelt the beauty of the park and convinced him of the need for further conservation. Roosevelt signed the Yosemite Recession Bill in 1906 which expanded the park boundaries. During his presidency Theodore Roosevelt signed into existence five national parks, eighteen national monuments, fifty-five national bird sanctuaries and wildlife refuges, and one hundred and fifty national forests. President Roosevelt said, “There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias….our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their Children’s children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred”.

September 2, 2014 Lassen Volcanic National Park, California Part 1

Leave a reply

While we were in Weed we stopped off at their Visitors Center and the lady there suggested we stop by McCloud River Falls on our way to Lassen Volcanic National Park. I was a little apprehensive about finding a parking place long enough for the RV and our tow vehicle at the falls, but Bill was confident we wouldn’t have a problem and he was right. Since it was a weekday and after Labor Day, the parking lot was almost empty. We walked down to the observation decks at both the upper and middle falls. It was a lovely falls as the water tumbled over lava cliffs, and we could imagine it being even more spectacular after the spring thaw.

McCloud River upper falls

McCloud river middle falls

Sadly as we traveled down toward the park we entered an area devastated by fire with burned hillsides and forest. We passed a couple trucks burned to the shell as well as some destroyed buildings, but we also saw where many houses had miraculously escaped fire.

We arrived at Manzanita Lake Campground in Lassen Volcanic National Park for a three night dry camping stay. Lassen is known for mountain scenery reminiscent of Yosemite and geothermal features similar to Yellowstone, but the best thing is this park has only a fraction of the visitors of Yosemite or Yellowstone. As expected after Labor Day, the campground was sparsely inhabited which was just fine with us. There were loads of firewood to gather and unlike most state parks who want to sell you firewood, here they did not mind us gathering wood for a campfire. We enjoyed nice campfires under the stars on two nights, but we were mindful of the extremely dry conditions in the area and were super careful.

Lassen Volcanic National Park was designated a national park in 1916. All four types of volcanoes are found in the park (shield, plug dome, cinder cone, and composite) as well as three different types of geothermal features (steam vents, mudpots and hot springs). Lassen Peak, one of the world’s largest plug dome volcanoes, erupted in 1914 and continued volcanic outbursts for three years.

We stopped by the Visitors Center and watched an excellent movie about the park and the volcanic activity which shaped the landscape. We purchased an auto tour book so we could learn more about the area as we made the thirty mile drive from south to north through the park. There were sixteen pullouts where we could view and learn about that area of the park.

Hot Rock, was swept from the summit of Lassen Peak in 1915 by an avalanche and mudflow after an enormous steam explosion on the summit. It weighs about thirty tons, the weight of a fully loaded semi truck.

30-ton rock placed here during the eruption, five miles from the peak

Near Lassen Peak, the road reached 8,511 feet, making it the highest road in the Cascade Mountain range.

Lassen Peak

Lake Helen

Do you see a face?

Juniper Lake

Near the south entrance of the park we came to Sulphur Works, the most accessible hydrothermal area in the park. The steam fumaroles and mudpots are evidence of the continued volcanic activity in the area. Spring snowmelt and rain soaks into the ground and then percolates downward through cracks and fractures. Eventually it comes in contact with hot rock and trapped gases. The water is superheated and rises to the surface as steam. The hydrogen sulfide gives the area a very strong smell of rotten eggs and the temperatures in the pools have been measured at 196 degrees.

Sulphur Works

We also managed to find four geocaches in the park also!

August 22, 2014 Crater Lake, Oregon

3 Replies

Bluer than blue, deeper than deep. We never imagined Crater Lake would be so beautiful! Our first glimpse took our breath away. Aqua, azure, cobalt, indigo, midnight, royal and sapphire, none of those words can fully describe the beauty of the color which can change depending on the time of day.

We left lovely La Pine State Park and traveled the short distance to Crater Lake National Park, which is the only national park in Oregon. They were doing quite a bit of road work in the park, taking advantage of the short summer season. After waiting a short time in stopped traffic, we arrived at Mazama Village Campground on the south side of Crater Lake National Park. We had planned on four days of dry camping here but after two days we were able to move to a full hookup site. It was nice to have electricity and heat with nighttime temperatures reaching the upper thirties and low forties.

The best way to view Crater Lake is by driving the 33 mile Rim Drive which makes a loop around the lake. It took us two days to drive the loop because of the thirty-three overlooks and things to stop and see. Crater Lake, at 1,943 feet, is the deepest lake in the United States and is fed by rain and snow, not streams or rivers. One of the Rangers told us if you took the Eiffel Tower and put the Washington Monument on top of it and then put the Statue of Liberty on top of those two, the torch would still be under water. If you gave each person on earth 7,000 gallons of water, the lake would not be empty. The lake is considered the cleanest large body of water in the world and is known for its clarity and intense blue color.

Crater Lake rests inside a caldera formed approximately 7,700 years ago when 12,000 foot tall Mount Mazama collapsed following a major eruption. The eruption may have been the largest in North America in the past 640,000 years. Later eruptions formed Wizard Island which is a cinder cone in the southwest area of the lake. If you gathered up all the ash from the Mount Mazama eruption and spread it evenly over the state of Oregon, it would form a layer eight inches thick.

Zoomed in view of crater on top of Wizard Island

Crater Lake National Park is home to more than forty volcanoes and everywhere we looked we saw cinder cones, peaks and hills from volcanoes that erupted in the past 500,000 years. Not all of them can be seen since some of them are underwater in the lake! Many of the volcanoes are extinct such as Wizard Island, but the volcano which holds Crater Lake is likely to erupt again!

Cinder cones in the distance

Watchman Peak, 8,013 ft

snow still visible on the lake shore in August

We stopped at the Visitor Center and talked with a super friendly and enthusiastic park ranger. We saw a fabulous film detailing how they believe Crater Lake was formed after the Mount Mazama eruption.

They have a trolley which will take you around the lake but we chose to drive our car and go at our own speed, taking as much time at each overlook as we wanted. Some of the highlights of our drive on Rim Drive was Pumice Castle Overlook where a layer of orange pumice rock has been eroded into the shape of a castle. Also Pinnacles Overlook was fabulous with colorful spires 100 feet tall eroded from the canyon wall. The Pinnacles are “fossil fumaroles” where volcanic gases rose up through a layer of volcanic ash, cementing the ash into solid rock. Phantom Ship Overlook had a view of a small island that they say looks like a small sailboat, though it takes quite an imagination to see the shape of a boat. Vidae Falls, with a drop of 100 feet was beautiful. But the biggest highlight of the drive was just seeing Crater Lake itself. At each overlook people gazed at the lake in awe, speaking in whispers or simply drinking in the beauty in silence.

We really wanted to take the narrated boat tour of the lake with a three hour stop to explore Wizard Island. We were ready to book the tour when we noticed in the description of the trip that you would have to hike down the side of the rim of the volcano to get to the water. The only way to get to the shore of Crater Lake is to hike down Cleetwood Cove Trail, a mile long, very steep and strenous trail that drops 700 feet in elevation. It was the description of hiking back up that got us. It was equivalent to climbing 70 FLIGHTS of steps. As one person said, it is one mile down and feels like ten miles back straight uphill. If you were injured or became ill, the only way back up was to be carried up by a team of Rangers. So we reluctantly and wisely gave up that idea! One of the Rangers told us they have flirted with the idea over the years of putting in a ski lift or some kind of lift that would make it more accessible to people. The park has managed to escape the boat access not being handicapped accessible because they did not want to damage the beauty and risk the fragile nature of the lake landscape. As the Ranger said, it is a hard choice when you consider keeping the park as an honored place.

White spot is boat and to the right is the steep trail from rim top to shore

zoomed in view of boat and can see clarity of water

We loved our time in Crater Lake and the campground was wonderful. We were able to get satellite TV with the only negative being no internet and limited cell phone service.

Other Crater Lake trivia:

Annual snowfall is 44 feet.
Widest area across the lake is six miles.
The lowest point from the rim to the lake is 570 feet.
The last time the lake froze over was 1949 but even then the Ranger’s footprints left a sloshy path as he walked across.
Crater Lake National Park was established in 1902 when President Theodore Roosevelt designated it America’s fifth national park.
The Park is of importance to local Klamath Native American tribes, with Native Americans witnessing the eruption 7,700 years ago and passing down through time an oral history of the event. The Klamath call the Lake “gii-waas”, sacred place.
The lake was discovered in the 1850’s by a European, John Wesley Hillman. The Ranger said Hillman fell asleep on his mule and the mule stopped on the edge of the crater. Imagine Hillman waking up to that view!

In 1988 and 1989, a one person submarine made 47 dives to the bottom of Crater Lake to collect data on the lake’s hydrology, biology and geology. Another important reason for the submarine dives was to explore the geothermal energy of the lake. Beneath Crater Lake National Park lies a reservoir of restless magma. In the mid 1980’s a company from California announced its desire to build a power plant on public lands adjacent to the park. They planned to use geothermal heat to spin turbines to produce electricity for San Francisco. They drilled an exploratory well a half mile from the park boundary. This caused deep concern and with the findings of the submarine dives, Crater Lake joined a list of 15 other National Park Services deemed to have “significant thermal features” worthy of protection under the Geothermal Steam Act, a law passed by Congress in 1970. The submarine only explored 2% of the lake floor, so there is much more to learn about Crater Lake.

For the past three years southern Oregon has been experiencing near drought conditions, with Crater Lake’s snowfall last year at only 50% of the average. As of this time the lake’s depth has not been impacted.

August 11, 2014 The Cove Palisades State Park, Culver, Oregon

Leave a reply

One forgotten Mt Hood picture!

Close-up view of one of Mt Hood’s glaciers, very cold but melting

We reluctantly left Moro and may have stayed for another day if it hadn’t been for the dreadful heat. We were headed south and sought out a campground with some shady campsites. We found The Cove Palisades State Park and after finding out they had several spots available we drove to the campground and chose the shadiest spot we could find. We didn’t worry about trees blocking the satellite TV; with temperatures approaching 101 degrees, we just wanted some shade!

This was just a one night stay and we wanted to see some of the park, so after setting up we hopped in the car. This park actually has two campgrounds. We atayed in the one at the top of the canyon which was cooler, had more grass and shade and was closer to the entrance. We wanted to see the other campground which was a five mile drive down into the canyon. Once we saw the road we were really glad we didn’t stay there because the road was very steep and our car thermometer went up five degrees in the canyon. We loved the views of the canyons walls which surrounded a lake and we crossed a bridge as the road wound through the canyon and passed an impressive waterfall. We came to one area in the canyon where we found a geocache at a site where there was a petroglyph.

The next day we headed to Redmond, Oregon where we will be attending an FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) Rally. They are expecting well over 3,000 RVs to attend this rally with seminars, vendors and entertainment to keep us very busy. As we pulled out of our campground we had a hazy view of Mt Jefferson.

Mt Jefferson from our campsite

A zoomed view of Mt Jefferson from our campground

August 7, 2014 Columbia River Gorge Part 2

Leave a reply

Wow it was hot! As much as we loved our site at the county park in Moro,

The little town of Moro, Oregon amid the trees and wheat fields as seen from our campground

Mural on the side of a little cafe where we had breakfast in Moro, Oregon

there was no shade and we cooked in the sun! On our last day in the area we decided to drive up to Mt Hood and then come back through to the Gorge area, cross back over into Washington state, and see the gorge from that side.

Mt Hood, Oregon’s tallest peak at 11,245 feet, is a dormant volcano believed to

Mt Hood

Zoomed in view of Mt Hood from the north side

have been formed 11 to 14 million years ago. Mt Hood has had at least four major eruptions during the past 15,000 years, with the most recent eruption occurring shortly before the arrival of Lewis and Clark in 1805. Mt Hood has twelve glaciers and is the source of five main rivers which flow into the Columbia. It is the second most climbed glaciated mountain in the world with the first being Mt Fuji in Japan. We could see Mt Hood and Mt Adams from our campsite, though with the haze from the heat, it was not a clear view. With the grandeur of Mt Hood and the magnificence of the Columbia Gorge, this area is quite a jewel! We could only imagine what Lewis and Clark must have thought!

As we left the campground we continued to see the dry wheat fields and then canyons, but the farther we drove we began to see glacier carved valleys with trees and vineyards. We reached Timberline Lodge which at an elevation of 6,000 feet was the closest point we would get to Mt Hood. This area has the longest ski season in North America and has the most night ski acreage in the United States. We saw many people dressed for snowboarding and it seemed strange to see people in winter clothing on this very hot day. Timberline Lodge, built in the 1930’s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and dedicated in 1937 by President Franklin Roosevelt, is a historical landmark and was featured in the movie “The Shining”.

Mt Hood from the south side skiing lodge

The Hood Valley is a one of the finest fruit producing regions in the world due to the fertile volcanic soil and the area’s temperate climate. Over 50% of America’s winter pears, as well as a large number of Bartlett pears come from this area. It is also known for its magnificent Pippin apples. We passed many orchards of apple and pear trees, as well as bushes full of blackberries.

As we continued our drive back from Mt Hood we noticed a geocache with an unusual name. This geocache was in honor of a pioneer woman’s grave. She continues to be a reminder of those pioneers who traveled west in search of a better life. Today people still leave items in her honor at the gravesite. This was just another one of those fascinating finds we would have never known about had it not been for geocaching!

We crossed from Oregon back into Washington

Washington State uses a profile of Washington’s head for their state road signs

to see the Gorge from the other side. The views were

This Falls was completely submerged by the Dalles Dam

magnificent. We came to Stonehenge Memorial, built by a local entrepreneur to honor the soldiers of that area who had lost their lives in WW1. It is a full scale replica of England’s Stonehenge and was completed between 1918 and 1929. There are also memorials there to local soldiers who lost their lives in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. We noticed that all the columns had plaques with the names of soldiers who died serving their country. This Stonehenge sat high on a bluff with magnificent views of the Columbia River Gorge.

We crossed the bridge back into Oregon and headed home for our final evening in Moro, marveling at what a beautiful area this turned out to be, knowing how glad we were to have made a stop here.

August 6, 2014 Columbia River Gorge

2 Replies

As I mentioned in the last post, the reason we came to this area of Oregon was to see the Columbia River Gorge. The Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River which stretches 80 miles and is up to 4,000 feet deep. The Gorge is the only navigable route from the Cascades and the water from the Columbia River flows to the Pacific Ocean. It is also the boundary between Washington and Oregon. The Gorge is a federally protected scenic area and makes up the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. This area is the largest scenic area in the United States. The way the Gorge was made is really quite amazing. Thousands of years ago glaciers dammed up the waters of the Missoula River. Over time the water built up until finally it was released from Montana with such force that it carved a canyon through the mountains as it roared toward the Pacific Ocean.

On our first day in the area we drove the Oregon Scenic Byway to see Multnomah Falls about a 90 minute drive from our campground. On the Washington side of the Gorge we could see Mt Adams and on the Oregon side was majestic Mt Hood.

Zoomed view of Mt Adams in Washington

Mt Hood

Zoomed view of Mt. Hood

This Scenic Byway was built from 1913-1922 and was considered an engineering marvel at that time. It was built in such a way as to showcase the waterfalls and beautiful spots through the Gorge and in the words of its engineer “not mar what God had put there”. As we drove we could see smoke from the wildfires still burning, though they were closer to being contained. The camp host had warned us this was a very popular attraction so we should avoid the weekend and get an early start. We followed her advice but when we reached the parking lot for the falls it was full with lines of cars searching for a parking spot. We ended up playing car tag where one of us would circle the parking lot while the other one would get out and walk up to the falls to take a look and then come back to the car and circle the lot while the other one took a turn. What a pain! Regardless, the falls was beautiful. The upper falls drops 542 feet and the lower falls 69 feet, making it the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon. A sign at the waterfall says it is the second tallest year round waterfall in the United States, though some would argue with that distinction.

Multnomah Falls

A little farther down the road we came to Horsetail Falls which is supposedly in the shape of a horse’s tail. It has a drop of 192 feet and was also beautiful. There was not a long line of cars so it was easier to view the waterfall and less hectic getting pictures. Near the falls we had a nice picnic lunch in the shade.

Can you find Bill at Horsetail Falls?

Bill determined there was a geocache nearby and we not only found the geocache but blackberries on both sides of the road as far as the eye could see. We sure wished we had a bucket or a large container in the car but instead filled up a baggie left over from lunch. I made a delicious blackberry cobbler when we returned home!

We then decided to stop at the Bonneville Lock and Dam on the way home. Bonneville Lock and Dam was built and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and spans the Columbia River, linking Washington and Oregon. It was the first federal lock and dam on the

8 dams on the Columbia-Snake River drop the water 730 feet

Columbia and Snake rivers. Construction began in 1933 and was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937. It cost $88.4 million. In 1986 it was placed on the National

Bonneville Dam First Powerhouse

View of the Bonneville Dam spillway

Register of Historic Places. As we drove in we went through a security checkpoint where a guard asked if we had any explosives or weapons. Everyone who passes through is asked to open their car trunk for inspection. They had a very nice visitors center where we watched

Bonneville Dam Visitors Center

Generator turbine

several interesting movies and looked at displays. We learned that the dam supplies enough energy to meet the power needs of 900,000 homes. They had nice observation decks to view the dam as well as the fish ladder. We were fascinated with the fish ladder which was planned

Bonneville Dam fish ladder

by the Corps engineers to allow migratory fish to continue their migration from the sea, upstream to the tributaries of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. There are actually workers whose job it is to spend all day counting fish! This information is used by biologists and engineers to track increases and decreases in fish runs. Between 700,000 and 1.5 million adult salmon and steelhead fish swimming upstream, and between 24 and 43 million salmon and other fish migrating downstream, pass through the Bonneville Dam in an average year! At one point we went downstairs in the Visitors Center where we were then underwater and watched fish swim in the ladder by looking through underwater viewing windows. Cool!

the fish ladder as seen from the underwater viewing window

At the bottom are lampreys, really ugly fish

Diane thinks this fish is really ugly and creepy!

On our second day in Oregon the temperature really started to rise and it was around 100 degrees by the end of the day. Seems the temperatures in Montana, Idaho and Washington were catching up with us. The main objective for today was to visit the Dalles (pronounced Dowles) Dam which is completely located in Washington state. We made a reservation for a

Exterior view of the Dalles Dam Powerhouse

tour and headed over to the Visitors Center. There were twelve of us scheduled for the free tour and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employee gave the hour and a half tour. We were driven by trolley over to the dam where we could actually go inside the facility and see the

Generator room in the Dalles Dam

generators supplying power. The generating capacity is 1.8 million kilowatts, enough to light up two cities the size of Portland. Here they had more fish ladders and we could walk on catwalks and see the fish going over or through the ladders. Yes, they have fish counters here too! They also had an underwater viewing window and while we were fish watching, a duck swam by!! The guide did an excellent job of describing what goes on at this dam, which was built over a 5 year period with completion in 1957. The Dam has a unique design in the shape of a backward “L” which takes advantage of the natural rock formation in the river.

Exterior view of the Dalles Dam fish ladder

Dalles Dam fish ladder as seen from the catwalk

On the way home we drove into the town of Dalles because the town had several murals along Main Street. Dalles marks the end of the Oregon Trail, a trail known as the source of the greatest peacetime migration in history. We chose three we particularly liked for the blog. There is a strong Lewis and Clark influence in the state as we drove on roads marked “The Lewis and Clark Trail” and “The Oregon Trail” and we tried to picture what it must have looked like to Lewis and Clark as they paddled through the Columbia Gorge. It is in this area they bartered with the Indians for horses, and it seems the Indians “saw them coming” so to speak and came out ahead on the deal as they forced Lewis and Clark to barter for three horses, two of which were not good horses in order to get one good horse. I bet when Lewis and Clark traveled down the Columbia Gorge they must have been wondering where the elusive Pacific Ocean could be!

As we traveled home later in the day we were behind several fire vehicles who had spent the day fighting the nearby wildfires.

July 29, 2014 Glacier National Park, Part 3

Leave a reply

The heat continued, not a stifling humid heat, but a dry heat that still made for some discomfort. We decided to drive back up to Logan’s Pass, and we knew we needed to get a really early start to get a parking spot in the Visitor’s Center lot. We drove once again on the Going-To-The-Sun Road and continued to marvel at the views and wonders of nature. Even though we had driven this route just a couple days ago, we never tired of the views and it was like seeing the jaw dropping beauty for the first time. The drive was faster since we didn’t feel the need to stop at every overlook to take pictures. We arrived at Logan’s Pass by

Heavens Peak

Clements Mountain

Reynolds Mountain

Columbian Ground Squirrel

10:00 AM and even though the sign said the parking lot was full, there was no Ranger to stop us from entering. It took quite a few times circling the lot before we finally spotted someone leaving. We spent time taking pictures and enjoying the scenery and by the time we left the Rangers had once again closed the lot and were directing traffic further east for the elusive parking spots. We returned home by heading west so we could see the views from the opposite direction, stopping for a picnic lunch at one of the scenic overlooks. We arrived home early enough in the afternoon to escape being out in the worst heat of the day. Unfortunately as I was fixing dinner the power went out throughout the campground. At 91+ degrees outside, the inside of the RV quickly became uncomfortable, driving us and our neighbors outside. After an hour and a half the power was restored.

Friday we spent the day exploring the east side of the park, even though we knew it would mean a lot of time in the car driving. We decided to drive west on the Going-To-The-Sun Road and then come home on the southern route outside the park. The heat was not quite as bad today, but the number of cars and people seemed to be growing and the traffic

Jackson Glacier

through the park was heavy even though it was early in the day. Our main destination today was “Many Glacier”in the northeastern corner of the park, considered to be the heart of the park and one of the less visited areas. The views here were gorgeous and we hoped to see a bear or two since we were told it was more likely to see one here. There were trails throughout the park which had been closed to hikers because of bear activity on the trails. Even though we kept a sharp eye out, we failed to see bears or big horn sheep or even mountain goats on this day.

Lower Two Medicine Lake

Lake Sherburne

Lake Sherburne and Grinnell Glacier

We wanted to find a geocache located seven miles from the Canadian border on the Chief Mountain Highway which connects the U.S Glacier Park with the Canadian Glacier park. The geocache was located at a scenic spot with a view of Chief Mountain. Legend has it that an Indian Chief was killed in battle and his wife, crazy with grief, leaped from the mountain

Chief Mountain

with her baby. Supposedly you can see the shape of a woman and child in the face of the mountain but we couldn’t pick it out. Bill had to roll under a barbed wire fence to retrieve the cache, somehow managing to dodge cow patties in his path. We encountered quite a few cattle on the road, including one standing in the middle of the road. We also saw many horses along the side of the road with no fence between them and the road.

We headed home on the long drive around the southern tip through the Blackfeet Indian reservation, a little disappointed with our lack of bear sightings. We were traveling down the highway when we saw two cars stopped in the middle of the road. In this area, that could only mean one thing, someone had spotted something. Sure enough we stopped and on the side of the road and up a small incline was a large brown bear. I have since learned they

Second Bear

are all called black bears even though they can be black, brown or blonde in color. Bill was able to snap some quick pictures before he lumbered farther into the brush and out of sight.

We really enjoyed our time in Glacier National Park. We had hoped to do more hiking but the heat made it somewhat difficult to do any long hikes. Truthfully, while the park is beautiful, we both felt that the Northern Cascades were prettier with many more glaciers and much more snow. A Ranger told us in the North Cascades that there is more water in one glacier in the Cascades than all the glaciers in Glacier National Park and we could see that is true. In 1850 there were an estimated 150 glaciers in Glacier National Park and by 1968 there were around 50. Today there are 25 glaciers and it is estimated that they will be gone by 2030 due to climate changes.

July 28, 2014 Glacier National Park, Part 2

Leave a reply

Today we decided to hike one of the most popular trails in the park, the Avalanche Trail. We were up early in an attempt to beat the heat and find a parking spot at the trailhead. At 9:30 we got the last parking spot at the trailhead. Since there were numerous warnings about this being “Bear Country”, we were armed with a whistle in case we encountered Smokey the Bear. We noticed hikers on the trail with bells attached to their backpacks and one even had two metal Sierra cups that clanged together as he walked. These all did a great job of warning us that someone was coming up behind us, but truthfully the trail was so crowded that I expect any bears within miles had quickly retreated to someplace more quiet and peaceful. Early on the trail we saw a beautiful waterfall and could see where over time the rushing water had carved a canyon through the rock. Stunning! The views of the valley and mountains provided us with untouched beauty.

The five mile trail was a fairly steady climb of 500 feet and combined with the heat, we were glad to reach the end of the trail at Avalanche Lake with a gorgeous view of three waterfalls cascading down the mountain.

Avalanche Lake with high waterfalls in the distance

The steep climb downhill had our toes screaming as they pushed against our hiking boots, and we were glad to reach the car and some AC! The rest of the day was spent resting and enjoying the coolness of the RV.

The next day Bill went on a half day white water rafting trip on the Middle Fork Flathead River. I was not feeling well from the effects of the heat and some dehydration from the previous day’s hike. Bill went out on the water with an expert guide so I didn’t worry about him too much. He had a great time and brought home some great pictures. I am looking forward to going with him in the future!

Middle Fork of Flathead river

Through the Eyes of the Selphs

Bill and Diane's travel notes and pictures

Category Archives: Waterfalls

September 20, 2014 Kings Canyon National Park

September 18, 2014 Yosemite National Park Part 2

September 16, 2014 Yosemite National Park Part 1

September 2, 2014 Lassen Volcanic National Park, California Part 1

August 22, 2014 Crater Lake, Oregon

August 11, 2014 The Cove Palisades State Park, Culver, Oregon

August 7, 2014 Columbia River Gorge Part 2

August 6, 2014 Columbia River Gorge

July 29, 2014 Glacier National Park, Part 3

July 28, 2014 Glacier National Park, Part 2