Coastal Adventure Part 1

August 19, 2013 – Monday
Our route to Fort Stevens State Park, our current location, was interesting. Instead of trekking here via interstates, we opted to use State Highway 30 and 30 by-pass. This route passes north of Portland through several small towns. The going was slow, but afforded views of the Columbia and the little towns were unique. There was a section of 30 with some pretty big hills, like 5-6% grades. It is cloudy, cool, and somewhat breezy, so after getting settled in, we decided to explore the old fort, from which the park derives its name.
 
The fort was established in 1862 for defense of Confederates during the Civil War. Ironically, it was completed one day before the end of the war. It was modified for continued use until after WWII. With all the modifications and the fact that most buildings are gone, makes it hard to visualize it as more than a ruin. Compared to Michigan forts in State Parks, this one is a loser. One interesting event was that the fort was fired on by a Japanese submarine in WWII. It was outside the fort’s gun range for them to answer fire. No damage was sustained and the sub left after firing 17 rounds. A couple pictures follow.

August 20, 2013 – Tuesday
On the agenda today are visits to the Maritime Museum and Column in Astoria. This area is interesting due to the confluence of the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean. There is a huge flow of water out the river which slams into 8 foot tides coming in off the ocean. Couple that with big winds and storms off the Pacific and it is easy to see the navigation challenges it presents. This mixer action creates shoaling at the entrance to the river. In its history, over 2000 shipwrecks have occurred as a result of grounding, with hundreds of seamen killed. Aids to navigation helped a little but the channel shifts around so much that it is still a problem in storms.

In the 1920s time frame, two jetties were constructed which narrowed the river; increasing the flow and blocking sand from building up in the river entrance. The Maritime Museum explains a bunch of this as well as the shipping along the Columbia in the form of steam powered stern and side wheelers. There was quite a bit about sea rescue and the Coast Guard role. The USCG developed a self righting rescue boat for this area. They also conduct rescue training here, figuring if you can make the muster here, you can do it anywhere. Also moored here is the decommissioned Lightship Columbia that used to be moored about six miles out from the river mouth. A couple of pictures from the museum follow.

The second stop was the Astoria Column. This is a historical maker with murals engraved along its 125 feet of height. There are 22 murals depicting events that shaped this area over the past 300 years. It is one of 12 such structures across the US. They did not indicate where they all are. 164 steps take you up to the top. Astoria is the oldest town in western US. Some pictures of the column and views from the top follow.

After dinner we decided to see the wreck of the Peter Iredale, only visible at low tide. This big 3 masted sailing ship beached here in 1906, and has been rotting away every since. Check out the following picture!

August 21, 2013 – Wednesday
Our objective here is to see the Columbia Bar, no not for a beer, the sand bar that gives this place its notoriety. We were told you need to go across the river to Cape Disappointment, so that is our destination. The area is a Washington State Park, with two lighthouses, a Lewis and Clark interpretive center, and the opportunity to see the “Bar”. First to view was the North Head Lighthouse, picture follows. There was a bonus here. On our way to the lighthouse we observed the USCG running rescue exercises from their helicopter. Check out the pix.

We then went through the L&C center, which had great written details, along with pictures and paintings that depicted Lewis and Clark’s journey from St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia. Thabout a ½ mile to the Cape Disappointment LH. It is still operational, complete with a Guardsman on duty there. is put together all the bits and pieces of what we had previously learned. From here we hiked

Our last stop was a walk out on the North Jetty for a close up of the bar. It was an ebbing tide, but there were breakers coming over it. It was easy to see why navigating this thing is such a challenge. Only a relatively narrow channel winds through here. It requires a local pilot to get ocean freighters through it. The NW winds whistling through this area are remarkable. As we walked the jetty your legs were getting sandblasted. Along Benson Beach the sand has piled up on the jetty filling all the voids between the rocks and blowing over it. Check out the picture.

August 22, 2013 – Thursday
Today it was off to the beach, Indian Beach in the Ecola State Park. We planned to be there at low tide, about 8AM. Being 50 miles away it was an early start to the day and wow, it was worth it! This place was like nothing we have seen before. There were huge rocks and out-croppings with scads of marine critters hanging on them. Star fish, sea anemones, oysters, crabs, clams, and other things you normally see underwater. It was foggy when we got there, then cleared a bit, then got foggy again as the tide came it. This was the tricky part. We were in a rising tide situation, walking a beach with virtually no shoreline, only big rocks. The tide is 8 feet, so it was very important to make sure we made it back to the access area before the tide got too deep. As it was we had to wade through some areas that we had walked through earlier. Check out the pictures!



We continued our drive down the coast but it was really too foggy to see much, so we decided to explore via hikes at Oswald West State Park. Very nice trails in this park. To our surprise they had a rest room right in the center of several trails. Not an outhouse, real restrooms with running water! One of the trails took us over to Short Sand Beach where some folks were surfing and someone offered to take our picture.

Columbia River Gorge - Road Trips

August 16, 2013 – Friday
We took a road trip today to some interesting places toward the eastern end of the Gorge. Our destination was Hood River about 40 miles east of Troutdale. The objective was the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum (WAAAM). I know what you’re thinking, another Dan place. Well, you’d be right. I’m fortunate that Lynn puts up with this. This museum had a huge collection of mostly early 1900s aircraft and cars from the late 1800s to mid 1900s. It is located on airport grounds in Hood River and almost everything in there works and is taken out on occasion and flown or driven. So these are not just restored; they are functional. The place was a little dim in light so did not get many usable pictures, but a couple follow.

We then turned south into the country, what they call the “Fruit Loop”. So named for all the roadside markets selling fresh fruit. We stopped to buy some peaches, pears, and cherries. They were yummy. It is amazing the difference in taste of truly ripe and fresh fruit. Upon recommendation, our next stop took us to Timberline Lodge. This place sits about halfway up Mt. Hood. It was built in the 30s as a WPA project for skiers. It has been restored and is like stepping back in time. A couple of pictures follow.

August 17, 2013 – Saturday
Another road trip; today to The Dalles. The correct pronunciation is like “the-dells” but with an “a”. The name came from the French La Dalles meaning narrows and falls. There is a large dam there, bigger than Bonneville. We learned there were 10 miles of falls in this area that required portage of goods. The Celilo Falls were used by the Indians to catch Salmon and this dam covered them up, which did not and still does not sit well with them.

In the early 1800s a fort was built in the area called Fort Dalles. It was intended as an in-between for Fort Vancouver and Fort Laramie to keep an eye on Indian threats and for people coming into the area via the Oregon Trail. It saw little or no action and was abandoned when the Civil War broke out. The only building left was the Surgeon’s Quarters. The others burnt down. This remaining building houses a museum along with a homestead moved to provide history related to the way of life in this area. Somewhat disappointing was the fact that all the stuff related to the fort were taken when the soldiers left. The rooms contain artifacts from around The Dalles during the period.

What made this place special was the docent who has lived in this area her entire life. She brought an interesting perspective and lived during completion of the dam and its impact on the people here. She was also very knowledgeable of the families and way of life in the early years in the area. We figured an hour tops, instead we spent several hours!

The last stop was to St Peter’s Church, actually now a landmark as a new church was built. There we also had an extended conversation with the docent. In both locations, we were the only folks visiting. It was great! A picture follows.

Following are some picture looking down on The Dalles from an outlook above the town. Also a pretty cool view of Mt Adams.

We made a quick stop on the way home at the outlook over the Gorge not far from the campground. It will likely be the last picture of the Gorge.

August 18, 2013 - Sunday
We have some grocery shopping to do and there is a car show in town, so guess where we're going? Today is our last day here, then we head to the Coast and Ft Steven State Park in Hammond, OR. We will not likely have WiFi for a while so this may be our last post for a few days. It has been interesting, but truthfully, there are places we've been that are prettier from a scenic standpoint. We hope you are having as much fun following as we are doing it!

The Gorge

August 13, 2013 – Tuesday
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.

Volcanos and Glaciers

August 11, 2013 - Sunday
We awoke today to heavy overcast and fog. Our decision was to make our way over to Mt. Rainier NP and seek low altitude and indoor activities. We started at the Stevens Canyon entrance and hiked a couple shorter trails, the Grove of the Patriarchs and Silver Falls; couple miles round trip each. The GoP was a collection of really old and very large trees; Douglas Firs, Hemlock and Cedar. Some of these old boys are over 1000 years in age and over 5 feet in diameter. It was amazing also to see where these behemoths had fallen from wind or being dead. The forest is very moist with many varieties of fungus, moss, and lichen everywhere. It was almost spooky. A couple of pictures follow.

Across the street, on the Eastside trail, was the route to Silver Falls, about 1 mile away. The trail was pretty flat until the turnoff for the falls where it drops to river level. Silver Falls was another cascading falls. The canyon was very scenic, and the falls were pretty.

The mountain is still socked in. There appears to be a real possibility we will visit Mt. Rainier National Park, but not see Mt. Rainier. Have a look at these pictures and see what we mean. Mt. Rainier is over 14,000 feet high with 25 active glaciers. We understand it is more common not to see the mountain due to clouds and fog. Paradise, a location directly south of the mountain, gets on average 54 feet of snow. As you guessed, all that snow doesn't melt at high altitudes thus forming glaciers.

Mt Rainer became a National Park in 1899, the fifth NP. The mountain is an active volcano, having erupted 10,000 years ago. It and St. Helen are part of the "Ring of Fire" that encompass the Pacific rim. It is also the first park to experiment with allowing people to drive their own vehicles. We know how that worked out! The park was a zoo today. No parking to be found at most of the popular areas.

We finished up in Longmire, at the western side of the park. This area was the original entrance in 1899. Longmires were the first people involved with the park and built a Lodge. Unlike some other NPs, the railroads did not have tracks out here and did not build the lodges. They have a museum and restored stuff from the park's early days. Well, we are about to head "home" and now it's clearing.

August 12, 2013 - Monday
It's again cloudy and we cannot see the mountain. So our plan today is to take a drive to Mt St. Helens. Although we were strongly considering the drive to Johnson's Ridge, it's like 300 miles RT. If the clouds don't lift we will be bummed. So plan B, we'll go to Windy Ridge, about 70 miles RT, then back to Rainer if it's clear.

You all recall Mt St Helen blew her top, actually her north side, in 1980 sending ash all over the place. Now, 30 years later, the area is recovering. There is substantial tree and plant growth. The lakes are recovering as well. The devastation is still apparent where trees standing are gray/white. Others are uniformly knocked over in a single direction, from the blast. The blast gas was 800 F. The ash deposited 200 feet thick and devastated 270 sq mi of forest. Spirit Lake, site of Harry Truman's lodge, was filled with first ash, then mud as all 8 feet of snow melted instantly. Some pictures follow.

Off to Mt Rainer for a quick visit. Now that we can see it, this place is beautiful. Being late in the day most of the crowds have gone home. We took a walk to Nisqually Glacier Overlook at Paradise. This glacier is still active and looks more like a big dirt ball than ice.

Headed to the Gorge tomorrow.

Riding the Rails

August 7, 2013 – Wednesday
Our plan today is to make it to Hayden, ID so we arose early, but we got a little delayed at the dump station. Got to chatting it up with someone already there dumping tanks. You know, this is like the morning chat around the water cooler in the office, for RVers. Well, maybe not, but it delayed our departure a little. For a place to camp close to Glacier, you can’t beat Johnson’s Campground for location, price, and overall nice folks.

The scenery along US 2 is awesome. We had heard they were doing repair on 2 up by Libby. In Kalispell, Lynn saw a sign for closure of US 2 up that way, so we made a detour down MT 35 and along the west side of Flathead Lake to MT 28. MT 28 had some pretty big grades and wasn’t much to write about, but MT 200… Wow! It was an easy tow and gorgeous as you travel along the Clark Fork river with mountains along side. We got to Alpine CG about 3:30 PM Pacific Time.

August 8, 2013 – Thursday
We made a morning run to Wal-Mart for groceries and a Mobil 1 oil change, then to a car wash. The truckie deserved a little TLC, so today was its day. Our stop in Hayden, ID is to visit family, so we are heading there next, to spend the afternoon and evening. We had a nice dinner on the patio of the White House Restaurant with Gayle and Paul. It’s been a while since we have seen them and it was great getting caught up on things.

August 9, 2013 – Friday
Today is to be an adventure. Paul is taking us over to bike the Hiawatha trail, a 15 mile railroad bed converted to a bike trail. The rail line was used by the Milwaukee RR from the early 1900s until they went bankrupt in the late 70s. The route takes you through tunnels and over trestles. The scenery is breath taking and it’s downhill, so you don’t really work too hard. The first tunnel is a dooesy, 1.7 miles through a mountain. There are no lights so your bike has to have a headlight and it is cold; maybe 50 degrees. It really is more like a cave than a tunnel. Lynn had trouble adjusting to riding in the darkness and could not keep her balance, so we actually walked it.

Along the way are interpretive signage telling about the Milwaukee Line. Imagine the 1910 time frame as these guys had to span canyons with the trestles, and cut through the mountains for the tunnels. That first tunnel took over two years to complete. There was an interesting story about a guy name Johnson that set 25,000 pounds of dynamite to blast away some of mountainside down the line. Sounds like a lot of TNT right? Yep, and when it blew it showered the construction camp below with huge rocks wrecking it. Fortunately, no one was in camp at the time, but they had to find another location after that.

Definitely two thumbs up on this one. If interested, check out
http://www.railworks.com/railworks-great-works/bike-trail-showcases-railroad-construction-wonders
Some pictures follow.

We then went back to their place for dinner and to catch up on Polina’s day camp activities. It sounded like she had a good time. After a great dinner we had to say good bye, but first Polina wanted to see the camper. After a tour of the inside, she asked to see the outside, the top to be more exact, so up the ladder she went! I could really use her courage up there when it’s time to wash the roof.

August 10, 2013 – Saturday
Next on the itinerary are visits to Mount Rainer and Mount St Helens, so we traveled to Packwood, WA today. About 200 miles were along I-90 which was mostly boring. However, as we approached the Columbia River gorge the scenery made a drastic change and became really pretty. The truck got a work out on I-83 and US 12, lots of 5-6% grades 2+ miles in length. It pulled it OK, sometimes as low as 3rd to get up the hills. US 12 was spectacular, although a bit white knuckle with the bends and grades. White Pass at 4800 feet was the highest, a climb from about 2500 feet. At our campsite you could see Mt Rainer if not for the clouds.

Many Glacier

August 6, 2013 - Tuesday

 

This is our last day in the Glacier Park area so we decided to drive up to Many Glacier.  The ride up, about 20 miles, was beautiful as we made our way west from Babb into the park.  There we went into the Many Glacier Lodge.  This lodge was built by the Great Northern RR in 1914 with an Alps motif.  The plan was to get people to this area instead of them going to Switzerland.  It does look very Swiss around here.  It sits on the shores of Lake Sherburne, and several glaciers are visible from here. 

 



 

Further up the road is the Swiftcurrent Motor Lodge, a bit less fancy but also nice.  Many trailheads initiate from here to Grinnell Glacier, Iceberg Lake, and Swiftcurrent Pass.  We walked the latter to Redrock Falls, about 2 miles.  Trail wasn’t much except when the mountains appeared in clearings.

 



We have enjoyed our time here in Glacier, except for the crowds.  The park does not handle them well.  Parking after about 10AM is nonexistent.  We lucked out at the Swiftcurrent lot, but could not find parking at Apulkuni Falls, so we passed it by.  It is probably best here after early September.

We head into Idaho tomorrow.

Glacial Impressions

August 3, 2013 - Saturday

It finally quit raining about 11AM, so we decided to go to the visitor’s center with some of our questions; then we hit the Going to the Sun road thinking we would just go a ways, then return. Fortunately, it cleared and the sun came out the further along we got, so we went the whole way to the west end of the park. This road is amazing, a bit of a white knuckle, but beautiful. The challenge to build this thing must have been huge. The road clings to shear vertical stone walls where they built the ledge the road is on. Two sections are undergoing badly needed restoration.

The traffic was extremely heavy, making it slow going and many of the parking areas were full. The NPS has a shuttle system; they run so infrequently it is an all day affair to get end to end and back. So we’re sure others like us decided to drive on their own, thus the traffic problems. Other Parks we’ve been to have really good systems and it works. The traffic issues, the inability to park and explore, detract from having a good experience here. Hopefully, the traffic will ease a bit once we are past the weekend. Anyway, despite those issues, we still were able to do some stuff this afternoon. By the way if you ever visit, the east side is definitely less crowded, and our recommendation.

We managed to find some open spots to see some very cool gorges and waterfalls. Some pictures follow.

August 4, 2013 – Sunday

Wow, a gorgeous day, so we went over to the dock at Rising Sun to take a ranger led boat ride and hike. The boat ride took us to the southern end of St. Mary’s Lake then a hike to Baring Falls, then on to St. Mary’s Falls. The scenery both on boat and foot was spectacular. The falls were also quite impressive. We have always found that any ranger led activity is awesome and this did not disappoint. Our ranger was Megan Lopez and she did a great job. Our only issue, but this is us, we dottle along looking at this, smelling that and can make a day out of a 1 hour hike. We were now on a schedule to keep up and catch that boat back, boohoo!

On Dan’s bucket list was to ride one of the restored red busses, an icon of Glacier. So we took a late day ride to Logan Pass. The NPS originally bought hundreds for use in several parks. They were originally made by White Motor in Cleveland. Wear and tear took its toll and they were replaced in most parks by more modern (shuttle) buses. Ford restored about 50 of them, not sure who paid for that and 35 are in use at Glacier. They are propane fueled with auto transmissions. For a big fee they do special excursions to various parts of Glacier. The experience was OK, but we would not do it again. The cheesy finale was to drop us at St Mary’s Lodge (1 mile from campground) and make us wait 10 minutes while the driver went for gas. No doubt they were expecting us to “visit” the gift shop.

The area that is Glacier NP was formed by a tectonic riff, known as the Lewis Overthrust, where an earth plate over rides an adjacent land mass. This was about 170 million years ago. Most mountains, like the Rockies are formed this way. The plate was then covered by glaciers about 12,000 years ago. The glaciers did their magic carving the valleys and forming the lakes. Those all melted away. In the mid 1800s there was a mini ice age that formed more glaciers, estimated at 150. These further defined the landscape. Today, there are about 25, and these are melting at a rate that they will be gone by 2030. Of note here is that these things melt away naturally, with or without man’s presence. The park was designated a National Park in 1912. So what is a glacier? The answer in a day or two.

Some pictures of our day follow.

August 5, 2013 – Monday

Today we hiked a part of the Highline trail to see the garden wall. It turns out the garden wall is the side of a mountain that has a really beautiful collection of wild flowers. This flower wall extends for over a mile. The trail tracks along a narrow ridge maybe 1000 feet above the valley. Some places have a cable hand hold because of how narrow and rocky the trail was. Our advice, don’t look down! Some pictures follow.

Yes we have seen some wildlife, some small and some big check out these shots!

What is a glacier? It starts out as an accumulation of snow that does not melt for several years. After some time the snow compacts and forms ice. As this ice mass continues to grow from additional snow it reaches a weight that starts it sliding down hill. They have to be about 160 feet thick and 25 acres in area to get the process going because they ride on a layer of water formed from the pressure that causes the ice to melt. Think of how ice skates work. As it slides downward it picks up small rocks and dirt that act as the abrasive to carve the mountains, and as they melt the water accumulates at the bottom to form lakes. So now you know!