Rivers and Mountains

A humbling day.  Not everything about life and nature and America is good.  Some days you need to pause and think.  We visited The Dalles Dam on the Columbia river today.  A marvel of modern technology and a destroyer of natural habitat.  The spin that they put on it in the visitor center was dificult to describe.  I was surprised at how readily they acknowledged that the salmon were all but destroyed by the dam - even though our treaty with the native americans promised to preserve their fishing grounds.  Yet, the overall tone was that the dam was necessary for modern civilized life and we need to accept the cost.   There is a movement afoot these days to tear down the dams and save our wild salmon.  Then, of course, there is the other view called 'Save our Dams'.

  Here's what we saw of the Dalles Dam.


And, here's a view of the once mighty, now calm Columbia:



If you know me, you may think that I am on the side of the 'Save the Wild Salmon'.  Ideally, yes.  But, there is this annoying thing called reality - and the comfort to which we are accustomed.  It was HOT today.  108 much of the day, just barely dipping below 100 after the sun went down.  I know I wanted my air conditioning, and I'm certainly not going to deny anyone else.  Hydroelectric power is one of the cleanest available.  hmmmm

We were also humbled by the sight of mountains.  We left the motorhome hooked up at Peach Beach and took the Honda for a ride up Mount Hood.  Here's our first view:

 


Then we got closer:



And closer:



We drove to 6,000 feet and had a view not only of Mt. Hood to the south, but of Mt. Adams, St. Helens and Rainier to the north.  I think I need to get a polarizing filter to cut thru the haze with my camera ... but maybe you can make out the flat-topped Mt. St. Helens in this shot.



And, here's the road we were on when we took that photo.  We sure are glad that we have a 4 wheel drive Honda in addition to our 30 foot motorhome!

 


On our way back, we took the small road on the Washington side of the river.  It afforded some spectacular views.



Just in case you were wondering why our campground is called "Peach Beach" .... The 'Beach' part is easy, it's right on the banks of the Columbia and people use the beach to launch their windsurfers/sailboards.  Except, there hasn't been enough wind since we've been here.  And, for the Peach part ... it is surrounded by Peach orchards.  We stopped at the fruit stand and bought a couple today.  They are SO sweet and delicious!



Well, it's time to go to bed and contemplate on how lucky we are.  g'night