Then there is the Gorge

The final dawdle - before getting that horse heading to the barn feeling - was a visit to some of the water falls on the scenic Columbia River Gorge.  We headed up to the Gorge along highway 197 and had a 10+ volcano moment.   there is a place near where 197 takes off from 97 where you can see at least 10 volcanic mountains from one place.  Try to drive this highway on a clear day!  It was amazing and would have taken an amazing camera to try to picture it.  We will settle for a picture of Mt. Hood taken a little further north. 

The Oregon side  of the Columbia River Gorge has this amazing highway built in the 1930's to attact tourists to the area.  The old highway parallels the interstate, is slower,charming, cool and shady.

We took a hike up above one of the roadside falls to another little falls.  The second falls changes its name as you go up the trail.  At the bottom of the trail it is called upper horsetail falls.  About half way up it becomes ponytail falls.

Along the trail we enjoyed several varieties of small wildflowers and ferns. 

At the falls we found that we could walk behind the falls.  They were not like a curtain of water, but still it is super cool to walk on the back side of a water fall.

We stopped further on the road at LaTourelle Falls.  They come out of the top of these wonderful columnar basalt cliffs.  The top edge is very square.

The trail beyond the falls takes you closer to the bridge.  It is a concrete bridge which impressed David with it's beauty and engineering.  Concrete apparently is strong in compression, but not so strong in tension, thus the bridge supports had to be designed to put the parts in compression.

 Our final stop along the route was a view point called Crown Vista, which has great views both up and down stream on the River.  The river itself was somewhat swollen, like many American Rivers this year, but was probably not technically in flood stage.  It is pretty hard to have a flood plain with these basalt cliffs as it's boundary unlike the Missouri, which is ten miles wide in the Omaha area.