Southern Washington Wrap-Up
Southern Washington Weekend Getaway Travelog 7
PDX Airport Gate 16. Sun 23 Mar 2017, 9pm.
Right now I should be sitting on the airplane waiting for takeoff, but instead I'm in the gate area writing up notes on today's adventures. I've got extra time because our flight is delayed 45 minutes. 🙄
After hiking to Panther Creek Falls earlier today we kind of threw in the towel- on hiking, anyway. Hawk's back was torqued, and the increasing rain and gloom were additional disincentives.
That's not to say we were totally done with the outdoors. We did make a stop for another unmarked waterfall we could see from the road. It was at least 60' tall and back a few hundred yards in a canyon. We parked and explored the trail.
After a few steps in the trail took a very steep drop. In dry weather we would've climbed down but with everything soaked with rain we figured we'd slip a few times and get messy- or worse, hurt. I took a slightly less steep drop down side trail to a knob to shoot the picture above. Even there I slipped once. I wasn't hurt (thankfully) but did get muddy and was dissuaded from trying the steeper trail.
Next we stopped by the Stevenson Museum in Stevenson, WA. The manager at our hotel this morning had recommended it. Plus it had a bathroom where I could wash up from slipping in the mud. 😉
The museum's displays were focused primarily around US expansion along the Columbia River.
The famed Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06 (Wikipedia link) mapped an overland route to the area and brought back stories of great wealth to be had in farming and trapping. Hardy settlers began heading west. To hold control of the area they killed a lot of natives. And even without the fighting, times were tough. I hear that lots of people died from dysentery.
After the museum we crossed over the river to Oregon on the Bridge of the Gods. I'd have stopped to take a picture but it was a narrow bridge and I would've held up traffic. Plus, the bridge was under car, so not really a great vantage point.
On the Oregon side of the river we passed the Bonneville Dam project. A glance at the clock showed we had about 20 minutes left until they closed at 5, so we decided to stop in and see their musuem. We had to go through a vehicle inspection run by a heavily armed guard. Apparently it's like this at all hydroelectric infrastructure now because terrorists might try to blow them up. Once inside we found the museum to be dull. It had only a few displays about the construction of the huge dam and two generating stations, each of which they diverted the massive Columbia River to build on dry land! And of course there was no access to the dam or electrical factories themselves. There was still a small sign to where there used to be a visitor center in one of the powerhouses. Well, I had a great tour years ago at the massive Shasta Dam. I guess that'll just have to do.
With still a few hours to kill before needing to be at the airport we considered doing a short waterfall hike. There are many great waterfalls along the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. The thing is, the weather was still crummy- and getting worse with twilight approaching. And we've actually been to all the roadside falls before. On a trip in late 2015 I shared pictures from two of them: Multnomah Falls (our third visit there) and Wahkeena Falls. We didn't feel like being out in the drear to see them for the nth time so we headed to the airport to relax before our flight.
Now, if only the plane would get here....
PDX Airport Gate 16. Sun 23 Mar 2017, 9pm.
Right now I should be sitting on the airplane waiting for takeoff, but instead I'm in the gate area writing up notes on today's adventures. I've got extra time because our flight is delayed 45 minutes. 🙄
After hiking to Panther Creek Falls earlier today we kind of threw in the towel- on hiking, anyway. Hawk's back was torqued, and the increasing rain and gloom were additional disincentives.
That's not to say we were totally done with the outdoors. We did make a stop for another unmarked waterfall we could see from the road. It was at least 60' tall and back a few hundred yards in a canyon. We parked and explored the trail.
After a few steps in the trail took a very steep drop. In dry weather we would've climbed down but with everything soaked with rain we figured we'd slip a few times and get messy- or worse, hurt. I took a slightly less steep drop down side trail to a knob to shoot the picture above. Even there I slipped once. I wasn't hurt (thankfully) but did get muddy and was dissuaded from trying the steeper trail.
Next we stopped by the Stevenson Museum in Stevenson, WA. The manager at our hotel this morning had recommended it. Plus it had a bathroom where I could wash up from slipping in the mud. 😉
The museum's displays were focused primarily around US expansion along the Columbia River.
The famed Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06 (Wikipedia link) mapped an overland route to the area and brought back stories of great wealth to be had in farming and trapping. Hardy settlers began heading west. To hold control of the area they killed a lot of natives. And even without the fighting, times were tough. I hear that lots of people died from dysentery.
After the museum we crossed over the river to Oregon on the Bridge of the Gods. I'd have stopped to take a picture but it was a narrow bridge and I would've held up traffic. Plus, the bridge was under car, so not really a great vantage point.
On the Oregon side of the river we passed the Bonneville Dam project. A glance at the clock showed we had about 20 minutes left until they closed at 5, so we decided to stop in and see their musuem. We had to go through a vehicle inspection run by a heavily armed guard. Apparently it's like this at all hydroelectric infrastructure now because terrorists might try to blow them up. Once inside we found the museum to be dull. It had only a few displays about the construction of the huge dam and two generating stations, each of which they diverted the massive Columbia River to build on dry land! And of course there was no access to the dam or electrical factories themselves. There was still a small sign to where there used to be a visitor center in one of the powerhouses. Well, I had a great tour years ago at the massive Shasta Dam. I guess that'll just have to do.
With still a few hours to kill before needing to be at the airport we considered doing a short waterfall hike. There are many great waterfalls along the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. The thing is, the weather was still crummy- and getting worse with twilight approaching. And we've actually been to all the roadside falls before. On a trip in late 2015 I shared pictures from two of them: Multnomah Falls (our third visit there) and Wahkeena Falls. We didn't feel like being out in the drear to see them for the nth time so we headed to the airport to relax before our flight.
Now, if only the plane would get here....