Welcome to the Columbia River Gorge!

We could have stayed longer at Silver Spur RV Park, but that expensive camp site convinced us to move down the road to our next stop--the Columbia River Gorge. We're excited about our campground that is situated on the famous Highway 30--the Historic River Gorge Road. The only problem is that the shortest way to get to that highway situated on the side of the mountains, is up a steep and winding road. Mark chose the shortest route even though it included warning signs about the 10% grade because he is fearless--Denisa not so much.

We wanted a week-long reservation at Crowne Point RV, but they were completely booked when we called several weeks ago. But they have a small grassy area with no hookups that we can boondock in until the weekend crowd is gone. We'll take it for a great location that is just a couple miles away from the Vista Pointe over the Columbia River Gorge.

This famous highway that hugs the Cascade Mountains along the Columbia River was a feat of modern engineering when it was started in 1913. Just a few miles down that highway from our campground is Latourell Falls. With a 249-foot drop, the falls can be seen from an easy walk from the parking lot.

But we need some exercise on this moving day, and there's a hike to the upper fall. Denisa mis-read that, and thought we were just taking a little walk to the top of the falls we had seen from the parking area.

We weren't surprised to see that the hike was very steep. After all, we are going to the top of a waterfall. But after more than a mile of going straight up that steep mountain, we realized we were going to a whole new waterfall high on the mountain--that's what upper falls means. This second fall might not look like a big waterfall until you see Denisa looking quite small at the bottom of Upper Latourell Falls.

True to the weather forecast, we got some rain on the trail before we finished the 2.5 mile hike back down off that mountain. These trails are muddy with all the rain that Oregon has enjoyed this spring. From watching the local weather, we have learned that this area has gotten a record-breaking amount of moisture this year. That's an amazing record in a state that is known for getting lots of rain.

Our hike looped us back to the base of the waterfall, where we can get an idea of its size with Mark standing in front.

When we look closely at the falls, we can see that this mountain is made up of an interesting rock structure. It looks like stacks of rock posts hanging from the cliff like a honeycomb. The Visitor Center explained that the more scientific name for this is basalt columns.

This historic highway features some beautiful 100-year-old concrete bridges. Denisa is standing beneath the bridge in the shadow of Latourell Falls.

The stonework on the guard rails and bridge rails is part of the charm of this highway. Like the tree branches, the stones are carpeted in moss compliments of this rainy environment.

On our way back to the campground, we stopped at a local produce stand. It's too early in the season to get local berries, as these bushes are just now blooming. The owner told us these blueberries were planted 84 years ago, and are still producing.

The plants are blooming, and each little flower will become a blueberry. It looks like it's going to be a good crop this year.

Even though they aren't local, Denisa couldn't resist the beautiful cherries at the produce stand. They came from California, and they're over-priced. But we celebrated the first fruit of the season and bought them in spite of that.

We got back to our boon-docking site, hungry and without electricity. That's when we discovered that the little grocery store across the road makes a mean pulled pork barbecue sandwich with coleslaw. As we ate our sandwich, we saw four different RVs without reservations hoping for a campsite tonight. We are glad to be here at Crown Pointe, and we think we're going to like our week-long stay here along the Columbia River Gorge.