Portland, the Columbia River Falls, and the Oregon Crowds

It was time for the wedding party to finally go their separate ways. Most of the guests left the day after the wedding. Now, two days after, the bride and groom left on their extended honeymoon that will include stops at Glacier National Park, and into Canada to Banff National Park. Jamie's mother needed a ride to the airport in Portland, so we drove her there this morning. She was taking all the extra wedding supplies and suitcases back with her, so our pickup just barely had room for her.

Our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter also flew out of Portland later in the day. So we met them in the city for a little urban exploration. Our first stop was Powell's City of Books, one of Portland's most famous locations. It was crowded, and the city parking was $14. Uggggh! Then we headed to Portland's Washington Park, where Denisa wanted to see the International Rose Test Garden.

We found out that early August is a great time to see the myriad of roses in full bloom.

 

Carter wanted to have a contest to find the best rose among the 1,000 varieties they test here. Our competition included the roses with the best smell.

Of course, a rose would get extra points for the best color and pretty buds.

Extra points were awarded if a rose was multi-colored.

We didn't see all the roses in this massive garden, but we did enjoy many of them. We noticed that the gardeners were trimming some of the blooms, and Carter found an almost perfect bloom they had cut off this morning.

She had planned to take it home, as another momento from our trip. She asked the ladies trimming if she could keep it, and they told her that no roses could leave the garden. Later, we found the sign that said "removal of the roses punishable by $500.00 fine." That could have been an expensive momento!

After we ate lunch together, they left for the airport. So Mark and Denisa continued their sight-seeing around Portland. We had seen enough of the city with its expensive parking and crowds, so we headed north and east out of town towards the Columbia River Gorge. We drove down historic highway 30 to see more of the crazy crowds around Multnomah Falls. Just like in the city, the parking was impossible. So we just kept driving until we found an empty pull-off spot next to an old railroad unnel.

This was part of the Oneonta Gorge hiking trail before the fires that swept through the gorge in 2017. Now the rest of the trail was fenced off. But after the tunnel opening we could peek down the canyon to find some interesting birds that were enjoying the water without any hikers close by.

We googled their black-masked description, and determined these were cedar wax wings.

As we drove further down the narrow old highway 30, we found some open parking spots at Horsetail Falls.

This was the end-of-the-line shuttle stop for the trolley ride that took passengers to see the falls. While the trolley was expensive, it allowed some visitors to see the most famous waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge without having to worry about finding parking spots.

While the views from the bottom of Horsetail Falls were lovely, we decided to climb up the steep path to see the waterfall above horsetail. It took us high for views above the Columbia River.

Ponytail Falls was the name of the waterfall that was directly above Horsetail Falls. If you look carefully, you can see Mark's blue shirt under the ledge of the waterfall.

We actually enjoyed Ponytail Falls more, with its cave that allowed for views from behind the water.

While we shared the view with others, it was nothing like the crowds at the easier-to-get-to waterfalls right along the road. We tried to continue our hike along the river gorge. But the burned trees spoiled some of the views.  So we returned to Ponytail Falls. We had wandered through more of God's wonders.

Then we headed back down to Horsetail Falls. Since it was a little later in the day now, the crowds here had thinned. So it was easier to get a close picture of this waterfall without people in it.

We saw the crazy crowds in the Columbia River Gorge, and this was on a week-day afternoon. It would be even worse on the weekend. In order to manage that situation, the forest service started a reservation system for the parking lot closest to Multnomah falls during the popular summer season. Starting in 2025, a reservation was required to park in the lot off Highway 84. When we tried to get a reservation earlier in the day, the earliest time available was 4:00. We went to the rec.gov website to make the $2 reservation, but didn't know if we would actually stay around long enough to use it. With our hike to Ponytail Falls, it worked out that we were there longer than expected. So we circled back on I-84 to use our reservation. We were a little disappointed when there was no ranger at the parking lot to confirm we had that reservation. But when we left our car and walked through the tunnel under the road towards Multnomah Falls, they were checking for those reservations. So we found that it was possible to park here without a reservation, but you wouldn't be allowed to actually get to the falls. It was still very crowded even at 4:00, but we finally made our way to the viewpoint to look up at the famous bridge and the falls.

Of course, we had to walk further up the gorge to get the view from the bridge. Even though this was the most famous of all the waterfalls in this waterfall-laden gorge, we're not sure that it was the most beautiful.

We could have hiked to the top of Multnomah falls, but we were in a bit of a hurry. When we started this long driving loop this morning, we had planned to also include the "fruit loop." This area of the river valley had perfect conditions for growing fruits of all types.

Since Denisa loves all kinds of fruit, and loves even more buying them directly from the people that grow them, this was an important stop in our driving tour. We enjoyed driving through the miles of orchards, with the views of the snow-capped mountains behind them. We were hurrying to get to the fruit loop, and specifically the Packers Fruit Stand before they closed at 6:00. Known for the generous samples of all their jellies and fruit products, they had already closed down their tasting stations by the time we arrived. We felt like they were hurrying us out even at 5:30, so we didn't purchase any of their peaches that were $2 each, or their cherries that were $7 per pound. Their pies were $28, and a pint of ice cream was $15, so we bought a minimum at our hurried stop.

It was a long driving day, that gave us interesting views of the mountains and the Columbia River Gorge that add to the magic of this part of Oregon. As we drove back to our trailer near Mount Hood we were tired and hungry. That's when we found out that this area had few places to eat, and none were open on a Monday evening. After a day dodging the crowds of the city and the most popular tourist attractions, we felt strangely alone in this more remote area right under Mount Hood. With our stomachs growling and after a day of crowds, we were glad to be heading home to our quiet home on wheels with a refrigerator full of options.

Hiking with our Family in the Oregon Mountains

The day after the wedding, the bride and groom planned a hike for the family that was still in Oregon. So after a lazy morning with bacon and eggs for breakfast, we headed towards the Top Spur and Timberline Loop Trail. We were in no hurry, because we were waiting for the clouds (we have seen every morning) to clear.  We had a fun group of eight hikers this morning.

We need to introduce our group. We're not sure how this happened, but we didn't have a picture of the bride and groom together facing the camera on the entire hike.

The bride's Mother was talked into taking this hike against her better judgement. Patti hasn't ever been on such a demanding hike, but we assured her that she could turn back at any time if she didn't like it. She was a trooper and never turned back. She did great!

Our oldest son, Luke . . .

and his wife, Jordan, and their daughter, Carter, were in our group of eight. Their son, Eli, stayed home with the other set of grandparents, so we didn't have all of our family on this hike.

Of course, Mark and Denisa enjoyed hiking with this group of people that are so special to us!

It was a bumpy ride in the cars to the trail head, and we found we had to park a half-mile down the road. This was a popular trail! 

We were about a half-mile down the trail when we met a woman with noticeably blue teeth. She pointed out that we were almost to the section of the trail with lots of blueberries. That was music to Denisa and Carter's ears!

She was right! We started seeing bushes loaded with blueberries right after she alerted us.

These are some of the prettiest wild berries we have seen in a while. We were spending so much time picking and eating berries that we forgot we were hiking up a steep trail.

This was a "lollipop" trail--meaning that we first hiked the "stem" and then hiked a loop or lollipop top. This loop opened out of the forest for what was supposed to be an iconic view of Mount Hood. But we couldn't even see Mount Hood, because it was completely covered in the heavy cloud cover.

So we made ourselves comfortable, and decided to just wait until the clouds cleared.

We waited for more than thirty minutes, and quickly took pictures when the clouds parted enough that we could see a glimpse of the mountain behind them. At least we got a peek at the peak of Mount Hood.

We finally gave up, and our group of eight headed on around the loop and away from the viewpoint. We felt a little defeated as we continued around the loop.

Even with no magnificent view of Mount Hood, it was a good hike. We even had a little blue sky starting to show up behind us. Denisa looked back to take a picture of Mark on the ledge of the trail.

After the viewpoint, we were once again in the forest, with Carter as our trusty hiking leader.

In this section of the trail, the blueberries were replaced by huckleberries. Much the same size, a huckleberry is more purple and is more tart in taste.

We even found salmonberries, and Blake was picking the ones harder to reach.

Carter was picking little "fruit salads" and delivering them to all the members of our hiking group. This fruit salad included blueberries, purple huckleberries, and three of the yellow salmonberries. Who wouldn't love to get a nice trail snack delivered in that little berry-stained hand?

While some of us were concentrating on wild berries, Mark and Luke and Jordan decided to make another dash around the forested loop just  to see if the clouds had lifted.

We were so glad they did! The clouds were parting, and they could see the top of Mount Hood clearly! So they ran back to tell the slower-hiking group the good news.

So we all headed back around the loop to get that view. The clouds continued to lift, with more clear pictures of the grandeur of Mount Hood. This iconic view was why this trail was so popular.

We were glad that Patti got this view, as the reward to hanging out with this crazy group on this hard hike. She got to wander into God's wonders with us on this day.

We were all smiling about that view as we made the hike back. The clouds hadn't defeated us after all. We stopped for a picture of the signpost that shows where we intercepted the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. This trail runs along the highest portions of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains, but it would take a little detour to get to that view of Mount Hood.

We were accompanied by more of the Tortoise shell butterflies that seem to be everywhere this summer. 

We finished the hike with five miles and 1,089 feet in elevation gain. That included some extra hiking back to the viewpoint, and Mark's detour up a summit trail. Patti agreed that it was a good hike, but we're not sure if she wants to hang out with these hikers all the time. She opted out of our evening plans for some reason.

Since we stayed at the wedding venue, we stopped to check on our trailer on the way back from the hike. We were glad to see that the battery was at 97% with a little sunshine making it through the trees this afternoon. Then we all met for dinner, followed by smores at Luke and Jordan's Airbnb. It was in another picturesque location, with the Sandy River flowing right behind it.

The water of the Sandy River was fed by the snow that was just now melting off the mountain tops. The outdoor temperatures merited wearing a jacket for Denisa, so you can only imagine how cold that river water felt this evening.

Their rental included a sauna. So they would get hot and sweaty in the sauna, then run down to the river for a cold water plunge.

Their screams were our evidence that the water was ice cold! Mark and Denisa didn't feel the need to experience it for themselves.

Jordan got the award for being able to stay completely submerged in that cold water the longest.

After that cold water plunge, it was time to warm up around the fire pit. The embers were just right for toasting the marshmallows we brought from the trailer.

It was a beautiful evening, after a great day with our family in Oregon.

Mark and Denisa are used to traveling alone together to beautiful places. But after traveling for a month to get to this location, it was so nice to have a reason to spend several days with our family in the Oregon mountains near Mount Hood!