Along the Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood – Oct. 10 – 13

This stretch was a lot of poking along the Columbia River Scenic Byway by waterfalls, scenic vistas and small towns of Troutdale, Cascade Locks and Hood River. The Bonneville Dam operated by the Army Corp. was closed of course but the fish hatchery was open. There were two bronze sculpture artists, Rip Caswell in Troutdale and Heather Soderberg in Cascade Locks who had statues displayed throughout the towns. Their works were so impressive that we visited the studios of both. Heather has her own foundry with her husband and they walked us through the whole process with pictures and pieces of the statue of Sacagawea that you will see in my photos. Nina was also particularly taken by her work! The first night we stayed at the Ainsworth State Park CG which wasn’t the greatest but adequate.

Continuing our drive up and around Mt. Hood, we traveled through vineyards, orchards and a fun stop at a lavender farm. We intended to try our luck at dispersed camping in the National Forest assuming their campgrounds would be closed but were pleasantly surprised to find no gates or “closed” signs at two of the campgrounds so in we went to Nottingham CG. We were the only ones there (spooky) but it was a great site by a creek with wood to burn.

This was to be a scenic drive to see Mt. Hood but except for a small peak we never did! The weather was supposed to clear on Saturday but morning brought 41 degrees and rain. We took the drive up to the Timberline Lodge anyway and rain turned to snow. Next time! Back towards the coast we go and found a really nice county park, Spruce Run County Park CG in Seaside along the Nehalem River. We enjoyed it so much, we stayed an extra day.

Photos