Eastern gorge and Mt Hood

Today we drove west along the gorge, and since we're in the arid area, the landscape starts out brown.  Then as we ride west, it slowly changes to green as you can see in the pictures.  We stopped at The Dalles and talked with a woman at the museum who gave us lots of information about the gorge and some maps and literature.  From there we drove the eastern stretch of the Historic Columbia River Highway, which was begun in 1913 by Sam Hill, a wealthy man who envisioned a road along the gorge that would have easy grades and not disturb the area's beauty, and which is now a National Historic Landmark.

We were then back on I-84 which also follows the gorge, and stopped in Hood River to watch the windsurfers and kite surfers.  There's no question that they have enough wind there to use in their sports!

We'll do the western part of the gorge in the next two days, so we did part of the Mt Hood loop and rode up to the Timberline Lodge.  The parking lot was packed with hikers, skiers, and snowboarders.  We just ate our lunch and took pictures!  We had eaten all our cherries so we bought another couple of pounds when we got back to Hood River.  We then crossed the bridge to the Washington side of the gorge.  There was a great overlook where we could see well in both directions, and there was some grass for a little Frisbee time for Baxter.


I've spent at least an hour trying to get pictures loaded!  I feel like I'm in the dark ages with this slooooow Internet! I can finish them tomorrow when I get a better connection.

OK, I give up!

Wednesday morning....we're back on the Interstate, and I have a good signal again!  I can finish my pictures.

Starting west on the gorge...brown landscape

Rolling brown hills

Volcanic rock

Starting to see some green.
This bridge should be interesting to cross!
We assume they lower the center when a train wants to use it!

Green along the river

This is the historic highway.
Note the original rock walls.

Switchback in the historic road

Kite surfers at Hood River

Heading to the water

Wind surfers

Looking back from the parking lot at Timberland Lodge.
I think this is Mt Jefferson, but not sure.

Mt Hood from the parking lot

Those dots are people skiing!

Weird volcanic rocks

Train tunnel viewed from an overlook on the Washington side 

Looking straight down the cliff,
Can you tell how steep it is?

The boys got a nice walk

Lots of rock pictures!

Heading back east.
See how brown it's getting again?

I love this landscape!