Day 14 – Driving to Hood River, Oregon

We have a long way to go today so we are out of the hotel by 7:30 am (6/13/2017) to begin our drive.  When we go out to pack the car it is starting to rain so I am hurrying.  As we leave we are heading west on I-90 and the terrain changes quickly; we no longer have the plains and prairies of Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and eastern and central Montana; we are now in the mountains.

Today we will travel through Montana, Idaho, and Washington and finally finish up in Oregon.  Quite a long drive we have today.  As we cross into Idaho, we again pass a number of signs for trucks to chain-up and then to unchain.  Then we enter a town named Smelterville and as you might guess they are a mining town as evident by this mine shaft building.

Still in Idaho and as you can see, the tops of mountains are still snow covered.  It is also still very cool with temperatures in the high 40’s.

We are in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest and the sun actually peeks through some of the cloud cover.  Somewhere along the way we go over Lookout Pass with an elevation of 4,728 feet.

Still in Idaho we are passing Lake Coeur d’Alene and as you can see a very nice lake. 

What can I say, we are in lumber country and as you can see we have long straight trees in the northwest.  The numbers on the tree butts are the cutter’s numbers so they get credit for the tree lumber.

We cross into Washington and the landscape is not so mountainous or at least the big hills are more rounded.  We are also back into grasslands and what look like ranches.

We passed by a farm where the landscape in the background is quite stark, but they seemed to have worked around the basalt columns that are in front of the barns.

After passing through Spokane, we are again back into farming country and we pass by wheat, potato and hay fields.

Reaching Ritzville we turn south on US-395 and the countryside changes to more rolling hills.  After passing Lind you can see how far the fields run.  We have seen what also appear to be potato fields.

Going through the town of Connell we drive by a Corrections Center, but a house nearby has several sculptures to make it a more happy place. 

In Pasco we cross over the BNSF railway train yard.  Look at all of the trains engines and cars waiting to go somewhere.             

Staying on US-395 we cross the Columbia River then merged with I-82 south.  Before leaving Washington, we are once again passing through farmlands with many of the crops grown in circles so the automated watering systems go around the field.

Crossing the Columbia River again into Oregon this time, we enter Umatilla and follow US-730 along the river.  No sooner do we begin on the road we see this.  We are not sure which business it belonged to but it was still interesting.  The face looks like John Wayne. 

Now on I-84 west we are following the Lewis and Clark Trail and the Columbia River.  Along the river the wind is very strong which makes for a good site for windmills and sure enough before too long here they are.  There are many windmills here at the Caithness Sheperds Flat Wind Farm.

Coming around a bend on I-84 and there in front of us is Mt. St. Helen in Washington.  The mountain is mostly clear with only some clouds forming along the middle.  In a couple of days we plan to go in the direction of Mt. St. Helen and hope it will be as clear.

The wind must be blowing around 20-25 mph with higher gusts and wondered when we would see wind surfers; well finally we did.  There were quite a few people in the water as you can see.

As we drive along the road heading to Hood River, we have great views of the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge.  Here we can see the gorge walls and can gauge their height by the windmills at the top.

We are surprised to see a barge in the river and wonder why they do not use the train system that runs along the river.  Still it does look interesting.

Carmen is able to get a picture of the Oregon side of the river as we come around a corner.  The sides of the gorge are very high with the tops cut sharp before the scree, now grass covered, drops to the river

The walls on the Oregon side of the river definitely have volcanic basalt column look to them. 

There are a couple of dams along the river and Carmen was able to get a picture of this one.  It is interesting and there must be some sort of lock system, but we could not see any from the roadway.  I think this dam was the John Day Dam. 

Here are some of the monolithic structures along the gorge walls. 

Again we see the sides of the gorge on the Oregon side.  Notice the train tunnel built into the rock.  The top of the butt seems to be somewhat flat with grasses growing.

One of the many bridges across the river.

Here is another of the barges heading downstream.  The wind is blowing so hard that there are white caped waves heading upriver that the waves are crashing on the front of the barges and splashing up and over the top.

Looking once again to the Washington side, you can see where the water draws the soil down to the lower levels.  I wonder how often the house at the bottom gets washed out.

The Washington side of the river has changed to a more rounded and rolling hill instead of the hard drop-off. 

We have been following the Oregon Trail River Route and I know there are wagon tracks along the road somewhere along here but cannot find them; actually I know they are here but didn’t look.  I know that they had to use rope and tackle to get the horses and wagons down off of the cliffs.  What a job that must have been and would have taken some time to complete.

Before reaching our exit Carmen see this lumber yard across the river and get a picture. 

We have seen many fantastic sights along the Columbia River and tomorrow we hope to see more.  We’ll go to a number of the waterfalls along the gorge and then head up to the Vista House and Columbia River Gorge overlook.