Vacation 2010 - Day 3

Today was the first time during this vacation that we weren't doing any major traveling. That way you get to enjoy the area you're in way more. For this day Kenny and I had planned to visit a couple of waterfalls about 20 miles west from where we were staying and to explore parts of the historic Columbia River Gorge Highway, which is part of the old US Route 30.
We headed out around 10.30 am and took the I-84 west. At Cascade Locks, we went onto the historic part of the old US Route 30. We drove through Cascade Locks and checked out the "Bridge of the Gods". This bridge really stands out and is architecturally especially impressive.Kenny took lots of pix and I documented the bridge with a decent amount of video. We didn't drive across the bridge, since it was a toll bridge. After that, we followed the historic highway west and got into Ainesworth State Park, were we explored the Horse Tail Waterfall. Absolutely gorgeous. After that we went even further west to the Multnomah Waterfall. This waterfall is absolutely stunning and definitely worth a visit, and reminded me very much about a couple of waterfalls in the Austrian Alps. All the scents, tons of people and lots of dogs were getting the better of Daisy. She just couldn't help herself... all that taken together was just too overwhelming for her. But as time went on she started to calm down a little more. We did hike up to a bridge from where you have an awesome view of the waterfall and we managed to take lots of pix and absolutely stunning video of the waterfall. After that we hiked back to the base of the fall and decided that it was time for lunch. We checked a restaurant near the fall, but neither Kenny nor I were willing to pay 12 bucks for a burger. So we got back onto the I-84, headed east and picked up lunch at Dairy Queen. Taking lunch back to the hotel was definitely the easier thing to do.
After lunch we relaxed for a couple of hours at the hotel and then we headed back out. This time we wanted to explore parts of the historic US Route 30 east of Hood River. So we got onto the I-84 and headed east. One of the first few exits lets you explore the historic Columbia River Gorge. We took that exit and followed US Route 30. This is a very scenic road, but also very windy and very much reminded me of many mountain roads in the Austrian Mountains. Highway 30 brought us higher and higher up until we reached the Memaloose Overlook. From there you have a absolutely gorgeous view of the Columbia River Gorge. You have an almost 180 degree view from up there and it is definitely well worth the detour. We then followed highway 30 and reached the highest point at Rowena Crest. This is another place from where you can enjoy absolutely stunning views of the Gorge. We then took the narrow and windy US Route 30 down back to I-84 and followed it to a city called The Dalles, and crossed via the Dalles Dam Bridge over into Washington.
We took US Route 197 north to Highway 14 and followed the 14 west. The scenery of the the Gorge on the Washington side is equally impressive. I just wish there would have been more turn outs, so that you can stop to take pix and videos. We stopped at one turn out and got quite a number of great pix and some good video as well. After that we took the Hood River Toll Bridge back to get back into Oregon. While we were crossing the Gorge we got some awesome pix of
Mt. Hood and Toll Bridge. Turns out that this bridge isn't paved, and you have to drive over steel plates across the Gorge. On top of that this bridge is quite narrow and a drawbridge... and that's something that Kenny wasn't particularly comfortable with. Regardless how you fell about the bridge... you definitely get some stunning views.
All in all it was a really great 3rd day of our vacation and Kenny and I enjoyed it a lot.