We have a little list of hiking/camping destinations picked out for this year (there's never enough time to do everything we'd like!). First up was a trip down the Historic Columbia River Highway. We drove up to Sherrard Viewpoint, which we had never been to before. From there you have a 360 degree view of the Gorge and (sometimes) five mountains. Today Mt. Ranier and Mt. Jefferson were hiding. We'll have to go again on a totally clear day.
Mt. St. Helens on the left and Mt. Adams on the right. I'm sorry they're not that easy to see. I'd like to experiment with using some filters to get clearer mountain pictures.
Mt. Hood.
Mt. St. Helens.
Looking back toward Portland.
After we came down from the viewpoint, we drove up the old highway to the Latourell Falls trail.
Lower Latourell Falls.
To see Upper Latourell Falls, you have to hike about a mile up from the lower falls.
Another view of Upper Latourell.
The old highway crosses Latourell Creek on this neat bridge.
Lower Latourell Falls again.
We were going to visit some of the other watefalls, but by the time we finished at Latourell, things were getting really congested in the waterfall corridor! The parking for every waterfall--Shepherd's Dell, Wahkeena, Horsetail was close to filled to capacity. And of course, Multnomah was very busy. It took us quite a while just to drive by, because it was so congested. So, we didn't end up visiting any other waterfalls. Sigh. But there's always another time! Maybe this fall, when there aren't as many people.
All in all, though, it was a great little excursion!
Beautiful pictures, Ashley!
ReplyDeleteI feel inspired to go out and take some waterfall pictures...thanks for sharing.
Kathy
Beautiful!! I love the one with the foxgloves in front of the waterfall. The Gorge seemed to be the place to go last Saturday. Hopefully you can go sometime during the week when there are fewer people.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE that first photo of wildflowers! all the contrasting colors with the moss, lichen, grass, and flowers, beautiful! Can't quite tell if that purplish flower is a penstemon, but the other photo is definitely some kind of penstemon (magenta-colored flower with mat-like growth). There are some checkerspots that use it as a hostplant, and both butterflies and hummingbirds love the flowers of all penstemon species.
ReplyDelete