Columbia River Gorge – Part 1

I am really behind in this blog – Again!.  I am hoping to start blogging more often.  When I wait so long it’s sometimes hard to remember things – such as the names of some of the waterfalls you will see below.

I spent 2 1/2 weeks along the River Gorge, part of the time in Troutdale, OR in a private campground and part of the time in Memaloose State Park.  The River Gorge area is beautiful.  Between the waterfalls, wildflowers, ferns, moss…  I loved it!!  Between I-84 and OR 30 there is some great scenery just from the road. 

Below is a view of the Gorge taken on a foggy morning. 

This is Multnomah Falls, probably the most popular falls in the area. 

This area was developed in the early 1900’s.  For example the bridge in the above picture was built in 1914.  Below is the trail leading to Shepperd’s Dell Fall’s.  I kept wondering what it would look like if it was done today – probably a white PVC fence.

Latourell falls (248 ft) is a drive-up falls (several of the falls are just off the road).  But I walked to the bottom of it and got rather wet from the mist.

One day, I drove into Portland and went to the Rhododendron Gardens.  It was great. 

Some of the rhododendron’s were so big they looked like trees.   This picture was taken from underneath the rhododendron – not your typical view!

I don’t know what type of pine tree this is, but I don’t think we had this in Georgia -

One of the hikes I took was the Triple falls loop.  The first falls on the loop was Upper Horsetail or Ponytail falls (about 100 ft high). 

You can see the trail goes behind the waterfall.  Below is another view and you can see people going under it in this one -

The trail was a bit steep in a few places --

Triple falls was well worth the hike -

Some wildflowers that I saw on the trails -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The yellow flower was about the size of a pencil eraser, but the red dot on each flower intrigued me.

To be continued--