Many years ago I came to Portland to give a training class and we spent our one free day visiting waterfalls in Columbia Gorge. The combination of the falls and the amazing weather had me thinking I could live here permanently, so when the opportunity came up to take a work kamping job for the summer and check it out I couldn’t resist. Originally we planned on spending today visiting the Japanese Tea Garden in Portland, but a Sunday with beautiful weather really brought out the crowds so instead we drove down to Historic Route 30 to see the gorge. This area was absolutely stunning and will require several trips, but I wanted to share with you a few of the falls that we saw and say some things in life do live up to how you remember them. This was the place that cemented my love of waterfalls and I have always wanted to share it with Lee.
We started Historic Route 30 in Troutdale. You can access some of the falls from Route 84 but we wanted to take the old path.
We stopped at the Chanticleer Rest Area to get our first views of the Gorge
This explains the event that caused the greatest concentration of waterfalls in North America.
You can see the Vista house in the upper right of picture. The parking spots were all full when we drove by so we will save that for a later day.
Our first stop was LaTourell Falls which was a beauty. Short walk to either an observation point of the base of the lower falls. We will be coming back later to hike the 1.8 miles roundtrip to the Upper Falls.
You can see the people at the very bottom for scale
The force of the water was blowing Lee’s shirt back
This map shows many of the main falls all along the route, although there are many others that require walking to get to. I definitely see lots of hiking in my future!
Here was one of the un-named falls along the route
The road was very twisty and narrow (a bit like Going to the Sun road in Glacier) but really pretty
Plus everything was blooming
Even the weeds were pretty
Next up Shepherd’s Dell which is smaller but really pretty
Definitely walk down to the end of the path it’s super pretty
Don’t forget to walk across the road and see the view from the bridge
Next up was Bridal Veil falls and this one we decided to walk down to
The trail was steep coming back up but absolutely worth it
The creek was amazing leading up to it
Lots of people were in the water at the base
From the lookout absolutely breathtaking
I had to climb down and sit on the rock
Around this time though things were really getting crowded. All of the parking lots were full and near Multnoma Falls there was quite the traffic jam
We will come back on a weekday but here’s a pic I snapped from the car as a teaser
Since the crowds were getting worse, we decided to get off Historic Route 30 and get back on 84 and head back home. But we passed the Bonneville Fish Hatchery and Lee really wanted to stop and see the giant sturgeon. Well OK, I liked the fish Hatcheries in Alaska so off we went.
These hatching areas inside the building were very interesting
Different sections had different types of fish
Big rainbow trout
The entire hatchery is totally free and I loved how many families with small kids were there
Lots of guys in this room talking about Herman the giant sturgeon
He is 70 years old and as large as a reef shark
That’s a full size tree down in that pond he is swimming next to
This gives you an idea of how big he was
They also had a wonderful gift store with lots of variety and very reasonable prices
And all the flowers were in bloom
So pretty
Then we headed back down Route 35 which is along the Hood River and saw lots of farms. We can’t wait to go back there in July when all the farm stands are open, but we did get some amazing shots of Mount Hood on this perfectly clear day.
You are driving on a road and turn a corner and wham this is what you see. Very cool
Since we were both starving at this point we stopped at The Huckleberry Inn at Government Camp and had a reasonably priced dinner. For $13 I got a salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli, and roast beef. Then we splurged and split an a la mode Huckleberry pie which was delicious. We definitely need to do a better job of taking food for these long days, but since it was Huckleberries I didn’t mind so much.
The town itself was a bit disappointing, but then we are spoiled by living near all those Vermont ski towns for so many years
My kind of diner
First time having Huckleberry vinaigrette, it was pretty good. Sweet and tart.
Nice big servings. I got two meals out of this
The pie was yummy delicious!!
Terrific day despite the last minute change of plans and now we have made two big loops around the surrounding area to get the lay of the land. Not a doubt in my mind we will have plenty to keep us busy for the 4 months we are here and look forwarding to seeing lots of waterfalls. Lee made a video of the few we saw on this trip, which is linked below.
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