5/14/11-
We took a little drive through the Colombia River Gorge. There is SO MUCH to see and do in the Gorge. I don't think we'll ever see it all. But on this day we took the Historic Colombia River Gorge Highway. We stopped at Crown Point {where we've been many times} and visited the Vista House {which was a first for us because it's been closed every other time we've been there}.
This is a picture of Crown Point from our visit in March. This view is from below the cliff off of the freeway. The Vista House is that bump on top of the cliff. The Historic Highway meanders along the cliffs and through the forests. It is a splendor.
This is the Vista House:
This is a better view:
This is Joshy and Toby inside
standing in front of an awesome little band that was performing that day:
This is what they were looking at:
Here we are on the deck:
We stopped at one of the very many waterfalls {I didn't catch the name of this one, but it was a beaut!} and took a little hike down from the road to the top of the fall.
Top of the waterfall
The historic highway runs along that bridge
Some spring beauty
I am completely fascinated by the beauty of all plants,
but especially the little flowers that grow in cracks on cliffs
one of my special favorites...I never could understand why anyone would consider these cheerful flowers to be weeds. I LOVE them. And the greens are very good for you.
The next thing we did was drive up to Rowena Crest. It is a couple of hours up the gorge from Portland but it is supposed to have a lovely hike with lots of wildflowers this time of year. So this was the main item on our agenda for this trip. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was POURING rain. We did not come prepared {like we usually do} with all of our rain gear, because it had been sunny in Portland. I was not feeling like taking the three boys for the hike in the pouring rain, and I could tell that Brent was sad about driving all the way out there and then NOT doing the hike. So I told him to just go by himself. He ran the whole hike in about 1/2 hour in the rain. It was exhilarating for him. He took some pictures:
Flowers with storm clouds and Colombia River in the distance
muddy trail
One very wet, but very happy Brent!
I'm sad I missed this hike...hopefully we'll get back there another spring.a
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