Across Country: February 2012

The week after our trip down the Oregon coast, Tim and I had still not gotten over our winter cabin fever. The day was sunny and not too, too cold. We decided that it was a good day to take a road trip. But where to go for the day? We didn't want to hike anywhere since our bodies were still recovering from the week before. A driving trip would be perfect. And so it was decided, we would drive through the Columbia River Gorge.

The Gorge follows the Columbia River and separates Washington and Oregon. We had heard how beautiful it was, and that there were a bunch of waterfalls. We had driven about a half an hour into it back in August for my birthday when we visited Multnomah Falls. All of the falls were rushing with water, probably from the winter snows on top of the mountains. We saw too many of them to count.

It just so happened to be a particularly windy week. The Gorge acted as a channel for all of the wind and as we went eastward it amplified. We pulled off at Vista Point off of the historic highway, and tried to park our car so we could walk around a bit. When I went to open my car door, it almost ripped right off, making a huge cracking sound (now the driver side door rattles when we drive :( ). Apparently the winds were constantly around 70mph on the edge of the cliff at Vista Point. Once we reparked to position the car out of the wind's wrath, we got to walk around. The pups hated this as they could barely open their eyes. We struggled to walk in the direction the wind was blowing. It was like a hurricane! It was nice to be able to experience such destructive winds without being in immediate danger.

The waterfalls started to become fewer and fewer, until they stopped completely. The river grew wider and Washington on the other side of the river began to look different. We had not driven through a town in a while. And all of the sudden, snow! Weird snow, only in some places, and on only halves of the trees. It had not snowed in weeks, we thought. But somehow, here, the snow never left. It seemed to be melting and refreezing over and over because of the cold winds and lack of direct sunshine. The ground and trees were half coated in a crisp white. This is when The Word of the Day first became evident: Ethereal. Nothing looked real. We found ourselves on the top of a cliff at a lookout. We could see for so many miles. Everything around us was still and bright. A mountain to the east was making clouds, while the sky over the river would make them disappear. It was magical. This was a highly unexpected reward, and it made our normal day trip drive that much more special.

We kept driving east, when all of a sudden(things really seemed to just happen "all of a sudden" that day), we were under a massive flat gray cloud that blanketed everything eastward. There was no end, and our pretty sunny day had become dark. We didn't like this. The cloud started at The Dalles, which is where the desert starts as I understand it. We figured since we had driven this far, we could call it a success and start to head back. But first we wanted to cross the river and take the Washington side back. There are very few bridges that crossed the Columbia. In the eighty miles we had driven there had been about two. Luckily and perfectly timed, we saw one that let us cross without paying a toll. We hate tolls.

The Washington side was different from the Oregon side. The Oregon side gets drastically less light because of the cliffs, so things are lush and wet, while the Washington side was dry and rocky. We liked the difference. It was like taking two completely different roads although they were always in sight if each other. Tim and I have been watching a lot of shows and things about Bigfoot. On the drive back west, we mainly talked about where he would live out here, which waterfalls he would bathe in, and which mountainside caves he would make his shelters. If anyone wants to visit us soon and go Bigfoot hunting, we are all for it.

Our day started and ended with views of the mountain we call "Pointy"(Mt. Hood). We are really enjoying our explorations of Oregon and the Northwest. So far, we have never really known what to expect, or just how miraculously beautiful it will be. Our next few trips we have planned are a three or four day trip to Seatle/San Juan Islands/Canada and once it gets to be a little more springy, a couple of days of camping at Crater Lake. I've begun to learn to expect to be blown away. Let's hope the trend continues.