We took a little side trip with the Kiwis (Jeff and Marla) to Hood River today. Planning on a few caches, we settled on starting with a really infamous one,
The Pipeline.
Beginning at the Hood River, we hiked up along the
pipeline until we got to the
creek, and crossed over on top of the pipeline. That's where we found some
"creative expressionism" on the pipe. We headed on up the trail to the second creek crossing. When we arrived, the gate on the other side of the
penstock bridge was locked, so we will have to return and do this one another day. That won't be a problem at all because the scenery was beautiful and the hike was nice, so we don't mind going back.
After that, we headed up to a panoramic
vista of the valley to do another cache. *HINT* It's not hidden in these
trees. However, a beautiful view of the snowy mountains across the gorge was, so I took a picture.
Melissa took a moment to have her picture taken with
Kiwi, Jeff and Marla's Newfoundland. She looks so small in this picture, but she is really as tall as your hip when sitting beside you!
Then we went into Hood River and had lunch, and then back on the road to do a few more caches on the way back to Portland. The best one of the day had to be
Tomb Raider, by Navdog. From the parking area, near Cascade Locks, we could look up and see the
snowline on the sides of the gorge above us. And the view
across the river was no less spectacular! We ended up having to climb all over what seemed to be an old rock quarry out on an island in the Columbia River. Melissa found the
final resting place for the cache. See the scenery behind her? It's about 100 feet or more straight down. YIKES!
We stopped at some beautiful places along the way. Marla decided that we needed to see all the waterfalls along the way, so we stopped at
Horsetail Falls,
Multnomah Falls, and the
Oneonata Gorge. Multnomah Falls is one of the treasures of Oregon, and rightfully so. It is 626 feet tall, and has it's own wayside and lodge right beside it.
Pool at the bottom of the falls
Me at the falls
Melissa and me at the falls
Small creek that feeds the pool at Multnomah Falls
We also took in the view from the
Crown Point Vista House. That was magnificent, and view looking either direction at the gorge was amazing.
Gorge looking east
Gorge looking west
It was a beautiful end to an amazing day of exploration! Thanks for the tour, Kiwis!
