We crossed from eastern WA into eastern OR and got on I-84 heading west! We were travelling along the Colombia River. Initially it was rolling farmland with vast golden fields of grain spreading to the horizon on both sides of the Colombia. However, as we moved westward the fields changed into steep walls along each side of the mighty Colombia! We were in the awesome Colombia River Gorge! It was magnificent and on our first day it was very windy and the water was violently responding with large waves crashing into the rocky sides of the gorge. I-84 and the railroad ran along the southern side of the gorge intertwined with each other. Sometimes the railroad was to our left and sometimes between the Interstate and the Colombia. But, the river, with the steep gorge walls framing it, was always magnificent. East of Hood River OR we found a state park wedged between I-84 and the railroad in the gorge. The entrance to the state park was actually from a small rest area on I-84!
 |
| A bend in the river |
 |
| View from part of the 1920's highway |
As we explored the area we found that parts of a highway built in the 1920 to attract tourist to the area still existed in some parts of the gorge. It had been a highway full of beautiful vistas along the steep gorge walls. Today small parts of it are open to vehicular traffic and some other parts are for hiking and biking only and some of it was incorporated into the current road system!
 |
The beautiful Columbia River
|
Wind surfing was obviously a very popular sport on the many windy days in the Colombia Gorge. We saw many wind surfers out and the higher the wind the more surfers!
 |
| Windsurfers! |
 |
| More windsurfers! |
After several days enjoying the gorge we moved to a state park that was about 35 miles west of Portland, near Beaverton. Stub Stewart State Park was the newest state park in the OR system and was well designed and located in the countryside about 20 miles south of the Columbia. Portland OR is a port city on the Columbia and we saw impressive harbor facilities on the Columbia in Portland.
Stub Stewart State Park has beautiful trails thru magnificent forests with trees that seem to reach into the blue sky above. For hiking through the beautiful forest you are rewarded with some beautiful views looking out over seemingly endless beautiful verdant forests!
 |
| Beautiful view of forests reaching to forever! |
 |
| Trees that grew into the clouds! |
Always at home no matter where we are!
No comments:
Post a Comment