Today was a travel day to the Columbia River Gorge, specifically Troutdale, OR. It is a small town that lies at the western edge of the Historic Columbia River Highway (HCRH). We arrived at the Sandy Riverfront RV Resort in early afternoon as it was a relatively short and somewhat boring, 150 mile trek from Packwood. This park definitely sets the high watermark for parks we have stayed in. Although lots are a bit close we are nestled between about a million bucks of motorhome on each side. We look like trailer trash in this place! The rest of the day was getting groceries and doing laundry.
August 14, 2013 – Wednesday
We explored the Gorge today via the HCRH. This seems to be Oregon’s Route 66. It parallels I-84 for about 20 miles with a dozen or so waterfalls and various places to turn off and view the Gorge and Columbia River. There continues to be a preservation movement to save this road, or now what is left after they built I-84. It starts and stops along the river. From Troutdale, the first thing to see is the Vista House, a building built in the 20s as a rest area for traveling to and from Portland along the Columbia River Highway. When you consider the state of auto travel back then, this was like a Taj Mahal of rest stops.
We visited several of the falls along the route. The biggie in popularity is Multnomah with a restaurant, gift store, and paved trail. We had to park and hike a ½ mile to it because of the crowds. In our opinion, although pretty, there were others prettier. It is the second tallest falls in North America. To us it is not the height but the way the water cascades down that defines its beauty. Some pictures follow.
Although we made it to Bonneville Dam and Locks we got there too late to see much, although we did see Herman the sturgeon at the fish hatchery. He is 70 years old, 450 pounds and 10 feet long. Nearly all salmon caught on the Columbia River today are hatchery reared.
August 15, 2013 – Thursday
Time for a history lesson, according to Dan. The northwest, essentially what is Washington and Oregon today, were exploited by the French, Spanish, English, and a few Russians for firs and fish. Jefferson wanted in on this action so he sent Lewis and Clark this way to find a path across the US. The only way to get ships up this way was around Cape Horn, but Lewis and Clark found the Columbia River and eventually established the Oregon Trail.
There was a problem. About a 1000 years before L&C got here a big rock slide blocked the Columbia at what is today the Cascade Lock. The river finally cut through it but left some very treacherous rapids, which had to be portaged. On both sides there were all types of methods to get emigrant's stuff down the river. Finally in the 1896, the locks were completed at Cascade. They was used to move ships around the rapids until the 1920s. As a Public Works Administration project, dams were built at Bonneville, The Dalles, and two more further up river. These each had locks, although their main purpose was to make electricity; they also altered the depth of the river such that the rapids at Cascade disappeared. So Cascade Locks is just a little resort town now. This opened up the Columbia as a major shipping lane.
So there is your very condensed history lesson. How about making electricity from water? After visiting the Bonneville dam again today we learned how. Yes, the water flows across some turbines that spin generators, but did you know those generators must maintain a constant speed to make the electricity? At Bonneville there is a 60 ft water head. They maintain water flow using shutters to the input of the turbines. The blades of the turbine are of variable pitch to compensate for the load placed on the generator. There are actually two power plants. We visited the older one on the Oregon side yesterday. We visited the newer one built in 1978 on the Washington side today. Combined they make about 12 giga-watts of juice.
Here is another interesting story. The new plant required a new channel be cut in the river, but there was the town of N. Bonneville sitting right where they wanted to put the channel. So the government relocated the town of about 500 down stream about a mile. Can you imagine the undertaking, not to mention they had to also reroute Wash Hwy 14 and the railroad. It got done in about four years. The people were pretty ticked and we heard it was not just a swap. They got the land free, but had to pay for their new house.
The picture that follows is actually the Bonneville Dam spillway. This is the excess water not needed to make electricity. We often though this is output form the powerhouse. Each dam also has a fish ladder to allow the salmon and trout to migrate back up river to spawn.
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