Columbia Gorge Visit Part 3

The Columbia River Highway Scenic Byway was today's destination. My brother kindly did the driving so I could do the gawking. Granted, I lived here many years ago, so the sights are not new to me, but the scenery remains fascinating. Everywhere we drove in the area, I experienced an odd sensation of familiar, yet not familiar.

Our first tourist stop was at the Vista House at Crown Point. Built in 1917, it offers an impressive view of the Columbia River Gorge.

The view upriver, to the east. As I have previously lamented, the zoom on my phone is not particularly effective, so I was unable to get the photo I wanted of Beacon Rock, which is 'way off in the distance in the middle/right of the photo. That particular rock formation is near and dear to my heart because I grew up about a mile away from it. There will be closer shots of it in an upcoming post. (The mist didn't help any, either.)

I like the artistic detail that went into most of the stone walls.

Looking across the river to the north, one sees green fields atop the hillside. This area is called Mt. Pleasant.

To the west, the mighty Columbia River makes the last portion of its trip to the Pacific Ocean.

The scenic highway is quite narrow and winding. I would not like to meet a large RV on it, and was relieved when we did not. A surprising number of people were out and about, and the parking lots were nearly full. On a Monday, in September? It seems odd. But all the retired folks head out on vacation and day trips after the families with children have gone home and back to school. Anyway - the photo above is of 249-ft-high Latourell Falls, one of several beautiful waterfalls one can stop to admire along the scenic byway. We didn't stop at all of them, and purposely avoided the most popular one, which is Multnomah Falls. The big yellow splotches on the rock face are moss.

We passed by this interesting rocky formation on the short path down to Latourell Falls.

Signs indicated which trails were open for hiking. Many of the trails are still closed due to damage from the 2017 forest fire that raged through this area. There are plenty of dead, burned trees in certain areas, but the underbrush has already grown back wonderfully.

The red trails are still closed, and the red cross-hatching shows fire damaged areas. Actually, there are more such than are shown on this map, according to my brother, who has been heavily involved in trail restoration efforts, primarily through the Pacific Crest Trail Association.

Horsetail Falls.

Even the guardrails along the roadside were made decoratively back in 1913. Note the fire-blackened tree trunks.

The moss-covered rocks and walls fascinate me. So I keep taking photos of them. I hope you like them, too!

All photos taken on my Android phone.