Our last day in Portland

Today is the last day of our summer adventure.  We have been blessed to see so much of America this summer and it's almost a little surreal.  We've driven about 5,000 miles, flown about 3,900 miles and done 155 miles on rivers.  What a summer vacation!  Tomorrow morning bright and early we fly home to Indy.

Today, however, we decided to spend some time actually on the Columbia River.  We did an all day excursion on the speed boat Outrageous going 60 miles up the Columbia River to Cascade Locks and then back to Portland.  It was cloudy and rainy (apparently normal summer weather in Portland) but we didn't care.  It was a great chance to see the gorge from the water.  The highlight of the trip was going through the locks at the Bonneville Dam we visited earlier in the week.  The locks raise boats 60 feet heading east and lower them 60 feet when heading west.

The Columbia River Gorge is still beautiful on a rainy, cloudy day.

The locks at Bonneville Dam as we were entering

The lock once we were inside.

It was a fun way to spend our last day in Portland.  We had seen the river from both the Oregon and Washington side.  We wanted to also see the views actually on the river.  It has been an amazing trip but it will be good to be home!

Our final adventure in Portland!

Mount Hood

Today was such a relaxing day.  It was the first one of our vacation!  We took a train out to Mount Hood.  The round trip was about 4 1/2 hours with an hour stop at Parkdale.  It was another beautiful day and Terry didn't have to drive today!  There were a few clouds at the top of the mountain but it was still beautiful.

Mount Hood

The train ride out to Mount Hood took us through the orchards of Oregon.  They raise pears, apples and cherries.  We saw men picking the cherries.  Too bad no one was making cobbler!

Cherry orchards

Our train for today.

We rode in the bubble car so our views were awesome!

We crossed over to Washington for our ride back to Portland.  We decided we would view the river from the other side this afternoon.  We learned that wind surfing and kite boarding are very big on the Columbia River.  We saw people on the river doing both during much of our drive back.   The water is so cold everyone is in a full wetsuit.  Personally, I think I'd find a more tropical climate if I were going to try either!

Getting started from shore - they went in one right after another for 20 straight minutes.

Fort Clatsop

Wow!  What a day!  It feels like we went to so many different places today that were important to Lewis and Clark.  Our first stop was literally right outside the balcony of our room last night.  The salt works they built during the winter at Fort Clatsop was right down the street from where we stayed on the ocean.  

Five men worked here through the winter and generated 28 gallons of salt for the return trip.

Next, we went to Ecola State Park to view the area where Lewis and Clark searched for a beached whale they had been told of.  We spent quite a while hiking the trails and across the beach.  This park is stunning!  It was a normal northwest Pacific coast day - cloudy and wet.  However, this is a place where you ignore the weather and enjoy the beauty of the beach.

The blue skies are gone but it is still beautiful.

We loved the rock with the hole in it.

Haystack Rock

Next we went to Fort Clatsop.  Needless to say, this was an important stop for us.  After spending our summer following the trail it felt wonderful to at last reach their final destination.  The interpretive center there is as nice as all the others and they have a re-creation of the fort built on Clark's drawings.  There were only 6 rooms in the fort and they built it in 18 days - hard labor!  The soldiers shared 3 rooms, Lewis and Clark shared a room, Charbonneau and his family shared a room and the last room was for their supplies.

Fort Clatsop

Our final stop of the day was Cape Dissappointment and the Interpretive Center there.  It is located on the tip of Washington State where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean.  Once again there were beautiful views.  Lewis and Clark spent 10 days here and considered it the official end of their voyage.  This is the place where the first woman and slave in American history were given the opportunity to vote - to decide where their winter camp would be built.  After a decision was made they moved to the south side of the river to build Fort Clatsop.

The final interpretive center of our visit!

We are in Portland tonight and will be staying here until our flight home Sunday morning.  Tomorrow we are taking a train ride to Mt. Hood.

Columbia River Gorge

 We started our morning at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum in The Dalles, Oregon.  It was a wonderful museum.  It covers the history of the Gorge as well as the journey of Lewis and Clark.  The focus of the Lewis and Clark trip here was on the 30 tons of supplies along for use as well as what was inside the crates, barrels, bundles and boxes loaded on the boats.  It was another excellent museum.

Our next stop was the Bonnneville Dam on the Columbia River.  The dam has 18 turbines that generate a tremendous amount of electricity for the entire Pacific Northwest.  It was a great visitors center and we enjoyed the tour.  I even saw fish ladders for the first time - to allow the Salmon to get back upstream!

Terry with the turbines behind him.

Fish ladders - there are 60 of them, one per foot the river rises at the dam.  We saw plenty of fish in them too!

Our drive today was spectacular again.  We drove the Historic Columbia River Highway instead of the interstate and the views and waterfalls are amazing.  Our first waterfall was Horsetail Falls.

Horsetail Falls

Our next stop was Multnomah Falls.  It really is spectacular.  It plummets 620 feet from its source on Larch Mountain and is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States.  It is fed by underground springs and is right off the highway.  I really can't imagine what Lewis and Clark thought when they saw the falls.  There is a beautiful lodge built at the base of the falls and we had lunch there.  What an awesome setting!

Multnomah Falls - notice the bridge you can hike to for a better view!

We are on the bridge in this picture.

This is a picture driving down the Historic Columbia River Highway - beautiful!

Our final destination today is the final destination of Lewis and Clark - the Pacific Ocean.  We are staying in Seaside, OR tonight which is where Lewis and Clark build their salt works the winter they stayed here.  We will visit the salt works and Fort Clatsop tomorrow.   By afternoon we could finally say "Ocean in View" just like they did.

This is the view outside our room tonight and it's beautiful!

Canoe Camp and the beginning of the Columbia River Gorge

Our first stop today was at Canoe Camp.  This is where Lewis and Clark spent 12 days with the Nez Perce after their rough journey over the Bitterroot Mountains.  They were starving when they got here and the Nez Perce fed them dried salmon and camas.  The men weren't used to the food and were sick almost the whole time here.  Even with those conditions, they managed to build 5 canoes in 12 days - seriously tough guys!  When they left Canoe Camp they were headed downstream for the first time in their journey.

Canoe Camp

We weren't able to visit the Lewis and Clark center at the Lewis and Clark Trail State Park in Washington today.  Government cuts have closed the center and it is no longer open - sad.

We were amazed today as we followed the Clearwater River to the Snake River in Lewiston, Idaho and then the Snake River to the Columbia River how much the geography changed.  We drove for miles surrounded by wheat fields.  Some were still very green but others were turning that beautiful amber color: amber waves of grain!  I have no idea how many acres of wheat are planted in western Idaho, eastern Oregon/Washington but I think it is the most beautiful crop in the field.  It's pretty when it's growing and when it's ready for harvest.  Then as we neared the Columbia River the landscape changed again and became much more barren.  We also saw windmill farms for at least 100 miles today.

Windmills in eastern Oregon

Windmills further west - notice how the geography changed!

We are staying in The Dalles, Oregon tonight.  The city is at the eastern portion of the Columbia River Gorge and there is a dam here on the river.  We were able to see the visitor's center and Terry got to watch a barge go through the locks - Bonus for Terry!

The Dalles Dam  and beautiful skies too.

Our view down the Columbia River tonight.

I am so excited about our drive tomorrow.  We will arrive at the Pacific tomorrow and we aren't very far but our entire drive will be through the Columbia River Gorge.  We anticipate another beautiful day!

Lolo Pass and the Clearwater River

We left Salmon this morning heading to Orofino, Idaho.  Our travels took us north back into Montana to cross the Bitterroot Mountains just where Lewis and Clark crossed.  Once they realized the Salmon River was too swift, they headed north to Lolo Pass.  This was a pass the Nez Perce used to cross the mountains.  Our first stop was at Travelers Rest.  This area is just before the assent up to Lolo Pass.  Lewis and Clark stayed here for several days resting their horses and trying unsuccessfully to find game to prepare to cross the Bitterroot Mountains.

Travelers Rest - they also stopped here on their return trip also.

The geography is so very different on each side of the pass.  We left behind the sage and wild flowers on the east side of the pass and encountered huge pine trees on the western side of the pass once you cross Lolo Summit.

The view from our front window for much of the western side of Lolo Pass.

We stopped just west of the summit for lunch at Lousha.  Terry has been deciding where we eat daily (I know that surprises all of you) but he's on a roll.  We have had wonderful meals and lunch today was no exception.  We ate on the back porch of a wonderful log lodge.

This was our view at lunch and we could hear the water running at the bottom of the hill.

Lewis and Clark were following the Clearwater River down the pass until it would become navigable.  We also followed the river and it was such a beautiful drive again today.

Pretty easy to see why they didn't want to be in canoes in this part of the river !

We have both decided we think Idaho is breathtaking.  We laugh at each other in the car because each turn seems more beautiful than the past.  We could have taken hundreds of pictures that would look much like the one below of the Clearwater River as you descend from Lolo Summit.  What a beautiful drive again today!

The Clearwater River

Our after dinner adventure took us out to Dworshak Dam and Reservoir.  It dams the Clearwater River at Orofino and is the highest straight-axis concrete gravity dam in North America.  Terry loves dams, so I'm sure we will be seeing several as we continue our way to the Pacific!

Dworshak Dam

Rafting on the Salmon River

Today was our adventure day of white water rafting on the Salmon River.  This is the portion of the river that Lewis and Clark explored hoping to use but the waters were too swift and they continued on horseback instead.  We found out just how swift they can be today!  We had a wonderful time.  You know the rafting is good when locals come with you because they want to be on the river while the water is so high and fast.  We had a grandmother and granddaughter from Salmon join us for our trip today.  The grandmother has rafted many times on the Salmon so it was like we had two guides.  She also shared more about the area with us so we learned a little more about this beautiful section of Idaho.  We had a blast!  We rafted 13 miles down the Salmon with a stop at an old mine and a stop for lunch beside the river.  The sky was the beautiful blue again today and the canyon we traveled through was equally as beautiful.  The river is very cold, as you would expect from mountain run-off!  We found out just how cold as we approached our first set of rapids.  Our guide (Rich) was informative and no one fell out, so apparently he's pretty good at his job too!  We were all wet but it was worth it.

Prepared for our journey!

Our view as the rapids approached

We finally saw big horn sheep today - three females along the river and one along the road as we were driving back to town.  We still hope to see a male with his big horns and moose also.

She's just above the brush by the river - definitely blends into the rocks!

After dinner tonight we drove up to Williams Lake which is about 10 miles outside Salmon up in the mountains.  The drive was pretty steep but the view was beautiful.

A picture of the valley on our way to Williams Lake

Williams Lake - at 5,200 feet.  

As we made our way back down the mountain we saw a four point buck enjoying dinner himself!

He was nice enough to pose for us.

We have loved our visit to Salmon and would recommend this as a stop for anyone in Idaho.  Tomorrow we leave for Orofino, Idaho and will head over the Continental Divide again as Lewis and Clark worked to find a river that would take them to the Pacific.

Lemhi Pass

Today was amazing.  I know I sound like a broken record, but it will be hard to describe just how beautiful today was and how many historically significant places we visited.  We left bright and early this morning and our first stop was Beaverhead Rock State Monument.

Sacajawea recognized this landmark and told the captains that her people, the Shoshonis, would be camped not far beyond.

Our next stop was Camp Fortunate.  Camp Fortunate is the site of my favorite story I tell to my students each year.  As the captains were meeting with the Shoshoni to try to get horses from them, Sacajawea recognizes the chief as her brother Cameahwait who she had not seen since she was kidnapped as a child.  That relationship sealed the help the Shoshonis would give the Corps of Discovery.  The  exact location is now under the Clark Canyon Reservoir.

The exact location would be directly behind this marker under the water.  

As we left Camp Fortunate we headed across the Continental Divide at Lehmi Pass.  I have been looking forward to this drive for months and it did not disappoint!  We were on a 2 lane gravel road for 12 miles through ranches before we started our 24 mile drive on a one lane gravel road up and over the pass.  The scenery is spectacular and we drove for miles seeing the same sights Lewis and Clark would have seen.  The gravel road is built on the horse path the Shoshoni Indians used to cross the pass many years ago.  The weather was amazing.  We didn't see a cloud in the sky all day long and we don't have blue skys in Indiana like they do in the west.

Here we are at the entrance to Lemhi Pass.  Take time to ask Terry how he got to the sign before the camera took the picture - good thing it doesn't show how hard he was breathing!

This is the view from the top of Lemhi Pass at the Continental Divide.

I read before we left that early July was the best time to see the wild flowers in bloom through the pass.  The flowers were everywhere!  It was beautiful to see all the hillsides covered in all colors of flowers.

The flowers were beautiful and that's what the sky has looked like all day long!

At the end of Lemhi Pass as you come out of the mountains, there is a natural hot springs called Sharkey's Hot Springs.  It's two small pools that are fed by the hot springs.  It was definitely hotter than a hot tub would be but felt wonderful.  We were sitting in a natural hot springs on the base of a mountain with a beautiful blue sky above us, wild flowers all around us and no other humans in sight - Bonus!

We are in Salmon, Idaho tonight and the Sacajawea Interpretive Center is located here.  That was our last stop this afternoon.  We have been so blessed when visiting the Interpretive Centers and today was no exception.  A local author and historian, Mike Crosby, was doing a talk this afternoon at the center and we stayed to listen to him.  He was so knowledgable about the Corps of Discovery and especially the contact with the Shoshoni - a great storyteller too!  The ladies working at the Center made us feel so welcome and it is a lovely place.  I have several new stories to tell next year!

Now we're back in our hotel getting ready for tomorrow's white water rafting on the Salmon River.  Our hotel is right on the river and we have our patio door open listening to the water rush by.  Here's my view as I'm writing tonight!

I could get used to this!  I'm sure we'll leave the door open and listen to this all night!

Gates of the Mountains

We left this morning and headed to the Gates of the Mountains.  This portion of the Missouri River is much the same as it was when Lewis and Clark were here.  Simply put, it's spectacular!  The canyon walls are beautiful and Lewis gave it the name Gates of the Mountains because of these canyons.  We took a two hour boat trip with a wonderful guide up this part of the river.

The narrow opening is the beginning of the canyon and is why Lewis gave it this name.

We got off the boat to explore a little at Colter's Landing and this picture is back up the canyon.

We saw this bald eagle going both ways on the canyon.  We also saw her nest which has two fledglings out on the limbs getting ready for their first flights.  

Here are the babies not quite ready for flight.

Our boat trip was wonderful and the first time we were actually able to be out on the Missouri River.  Our second stop of the day was at Three Forks.  This is where the Missouri River begins as the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers join to form the Missouri.

This is where the Jefferson and Madison come together.  There is no elevation in the park that allows you to photograph the 3 rivers at the same time.  If you floated in an inner tube from here you would reach the Gulf of Mexico in about 2 1/2 months!

We had another beautiful day.  We both understand why Montana is called Big Sky Country.  You can see forever and everything you are seeing is simply beautiful.  Tomorrow we cross the continental divide and have many places to stop along the way.  I think tomorrow will be one of our most beautiful drives as we definitely aren't going on the interstate but plan to cross Lemhi Pass and hope most of the roads are paved!