Road trip today to see this part of Oregon. Headed east for 50 miles on Historic route 30( the first paved road in Oregon) from Troutdale along the Columbia River Basin. Unfortunately the wildfires in Oregon and as far away as British Columbia put a thick haze in the area spoiling many of the great views. The first site of the Columbia Gorge was on a high point where the Chanticleer Hotel once stood (burned down in 1931) which had great views up and down the river. The next stop was Vista House built in 1916 and sits 733 ft. above the river on top of Crown Point. From there we descended to “Waterfall Alley” with 11 great waterfalls along a 9 mile section of Old Route 30. They vary from 140 to 642 foot drops.
When we reached the point where the Hood River meets the Columbia we turned South on Route 35 to go around the backside of Mount Hood. On the way we stopped in Parkdale for lunch and across the street was the Hutson Museum. When we got to Route 26 we headed west and then up the 6 mile drive to Timberline Lodge (built in the 1930’s) at 6000 feet on Mt. Hood. The parking lot was full of kids having just come off the mountain with their snowboards – ski here 12 months a year. Hood Mountain is 11,239 feet high and at the 6000 foot lodge level we had gotten above the smoke haze.
