Making our way back to Vegas

As we left the Seattle area, we hugged the Columbia River Gorge just to take in the views. We had already visited Multnomah Falls years ago, so we settled for a drive by view. In Hood River, we checked out the Hood River Hotel, built as a wooden hotel in 1912 – later a brick addition expanded the original many times. We visited the historic depot of the Hood River Railway and saw some of the original wooden cars. Lastly, we visited the Columbia Gorge Hotel, built as a luxury retreat in 1921. We got a bonus when we discovered that Wah Gwin Gwin Falls (also known as Lullaby Falls) is on the hotel’s property – one we had not previously seen. Wah Gwin Gwin means rushing waters in native tongue.

We headed to Cascade Locks. Built in 1878, the locks bypassed the rapids on the Columbia River at this point, allowing better riverboat travel. Built in the 1930’s, the Bonneville Dam raised the level of the river sufficiently that the locks were no longer needed. However, the lock foundations are still where they stood when opened.

One of the reasons we headed here is that the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Columbia River here. We hiked the trail both North and South for several miles, and paid the toll to drive across the Bridge of the Gods, opened in 1925 to allow Oregonians to visit Washington without having to travel to the Pacific. A campground for PCT through hikers was established near the Cascade Locks. We checked there each day to see how many through hikers there were, and there were a lot. Sadly, we missed by a day or so Pacific Crest Trail Days in Cascade Locks. As we hiked other sections of the PCT in the next few days, we heard Trail Angels mention that PCT Day in Cascade Locks had depleted the number of through hikers they would see.

We then headed to Sisters Oregon, a personal favorite location. The PCT travels North/South just about 15 miles West of Sisters. So, we caught the Volcanic Loop Scenic Highway and managed to find two places where the PCT crossed highways. Not to mention, but we hiked both North and South from each of these crossings. We did tend to avoid the sections of the PCT that went directly across lava flows – yuck!

Talk to you soon.