Two nights without Internet

One night I can handle, besides the trees in this campsite were so gorgeous, I figured it was worth it.

 


By the second night, I wanted Internet!  We planned to stay at Fort Stevens a the mouth of the Columbia River, right on the Pacific ocean.  We got there a little early - 3pm and almost considered traveling further down the road - but then we noticed the crowds checking in and figured we'd better secure a site.  There are a lot of trees in this park too, but we got a site that was open and thought Internet would be fine.  We were wrong.



So, this morning we got up early and left for Fort Clatsop (where Lewis and Clark wintered 1805 - 1806).  There's a big parking lot here, so we fired up the generator and raised the dish.  Say Halleluja!  We have Internet.  I can now catch you up on our last 2 days!

Multnomah Falls
The Columbia River Gorge is known for it's waterfalls.  Not where we were on the East end ... that's all desert.  But, you can tell as soon as you've crossed over the Cascade range.  The mountains stop the weather ... all the clouds coming inland from the Pacific Ocean drop their moisture when they hit the mountains, so, it's green and lush west of the Cascades and it's dry and hot east of the Cascades.  You can tell we're getting there:

 


We had to go under a low bridge to get to this particular spot.  Good to know ... we can make it (just) under a 12 foot clearance!



And, here's the falls.  It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we enjoyed this spectacular sight along with (at least) 25,000 other people!  We always need exercise so we decided to hike up the 1.2 mile trail to the top of the falls.  Yep, it was good exercise!




 



I remember from my travels here over 20 years ago that there are LOTS more waterfalls, but we would need to unhook the Honda to drive on the smaller, winding road.  We decided to be satisfied with seeing Multnomah and continue on our way.  There is just SO much to see in this country!

We passed Portland and saw Mt. Hood while crossing the Columbia river.




Once you're on the ocean side of Portland, the Columbia River is much more commercial.  Take a look at this lumber.