Maybe I forgot to mention this, but the Columbia River is also the state line between Washington and Oregon. Disembark on the south side of the river, you're in Oregon. Disembark on the north side and you are in Washington.
Waking up to a gentle cruise on a scenic river, under blue skies, is pretty magical. Welcome to the Columbia River Gorge.
Today we disembarked in Stevenson, WA then took a shuttle to Multnomah Falls located over the bridge on the Oregon side. Brace yourselves; there are a lot of pictures!
It was a short but very scenic drive on the new road, over the old bridge, alongside the old road. This is the area near the Cascade Lock... which I slept through as we were lifted up this morning. Dang it!
The hike to the top was about a 600' elevation gain along a narrow hiking trail that was mainly switchbacks. An invigorating workout that about a half dozen of us managed - along with our excursions director, Rebecca. I'd say it took all of 75 minutes to get up and back down and that was 15 minutes longer than the bus driver told us we had. Oops! Couldn't be helped, man. That was about as fast as it could be done after omelets and French toast for breakfast.
Taken from that bridge you see in the above pic:
Taken from the top:
From the top, we had a small cascade before the water slid past us and then over the edge. The leaves were just starting to turn those rusty shades that indicate fall is coming. It smelled so good up there.
That's the visitor center and viewing platform for Multnomah Falls, down there. Hello, Donnie!!!
We went back to the boat for lunch, then launched into an afternoon in Stevenson.
I honestly don't know what you mean.... Strawberry shortcake is totally appropriate if you climbed a towering waterfall! This gal had to keep up her strength if she was going to keep up with Donnie and learn about the dam this afternoon.
Gotta love some of the signage around Stevenson. I mean, if you are the train driver and you come upon this, isn't the first question "why not just 30 seconds?"
I don't remember too much about Stevenson. I think it was one of those blink and you miss it, towns.
The dam and fish ladder was interesting though. It never occurred to me that fish had to get around a dam. I figured they either lived below or above it and didn't need a ladder. I was wrong!
Turbines for hydro-electric power generation. Very important and supplying a ton of people in various states with electricity.
The fish ladder! A means by which salmon can circumvent the dam and get further up the river for spawning. Even more surprising than a fish ladder is that it's someone's job to count fish as they swim past the windows, in order to gauge numbers and use this data to regulate fishing. Now there is a job I don't see getting a lot of applicants for! A bit of a snooze, eh?!
Lamprey. Ugly little suckers. Kinda like eels? Traditionally eaten? IMHO, the stuff of bad dreams.
Back to the boat... And time for cocktails and dinner!
As the American Song cruised through this stretch of the Columbia at dinner time, we were treated to a host of sailing, parasailing and windsurfing type entertainment.
I think I had the lamb for dinner! Gosh... I guess it was great or I would have remembered the only bad meal. I certainly delighted in the flourless chocolate torte, that I do remember!
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