Rain is predicted today as I head over the Cascade mountains. I’ve been blessed to have sunny skies every day so I can’t complain about a little rain now. It looks like Virginia is being soaked. Heat and now rain...the perfect time to be out of town!
Driving toward mountains always make me smile plus I am on another scenic highway - Mt. Hood Scenic Byway. As I climb upward on Mount Hood, a 11,239 ft peak in the Cascade range, white flakes begin to hit the windshield. By the time I turn off to visit Timberline Lodge which is still several miles further up the mountain, I debate whether to continue or abandon my adventure for one at a lower elevation.
I arrive to a parking lot covered in slushy snow and temps below freezing. I pull on my boots while the white flakes become a furious icy snow mix.
I spend a couple of hrs admiring and learning about the architecture and history of the lodge. Built in the mid-1930’s by people employed under FDR’s Work Progress Administration, designers and decorators wanted to incorporate natural elements of wood, stone, iron, and animal motifs throughout. “Cascadian style” was used to describe a rustic Arts and Crafts style while incorporating pioneer and Native American themes true to Oregon history.
Recovering from the Great Depression, it was an era of thrift and recycling. Telephone poles purchased for $2.10 each were carved into the shape of animals for staircase newel posts.
My favorite was the post used for the mail box!
Worn workers uniforms and blankets were cut and made into rugs, and spiral fireplace andirons had been railroad rails.
A massive fireplace anchors the two lower floors, and enormous pine columns support the main lobby roof which have been hand-adzed.
Furniture was over-sized and most is original to the Lodge. The artwork is also original and coordinated with the themes of nature and Oregon.
Light fixtures are both decorative and functional.
Heading down the mountain the road is covered in white, and I don’t have the advantage of 4-wheel drive nor the bulk of The Beast. I creep along, and I’m passed by The Mt. Hood Express bus! The snow is beautiful, but I’m glad to reach non-frozen territory.
Next stop, Hood River, a town on the Columbia River known as a haven for wind and kite surfers. I watch these acrobats for a while eating my sandwich before heading to Bonneville Lock and Dam. This is the first of 8 locks on the Columbia River, and I arrive to watch a series of barges passing through!
I am fascinated by the technology which is ingenious but fairly simple of gates opening and closing to raise or lower the water level to accommodate vessels. Just as the sawmill demonstrated, we think we are so smart in modern times, but people have been solving problems for years without the benefit of computers and technology.
I watch fish on the dam’s fish ladder and learn about solving dual problems - turbines killing fish and migrating fish traveling up-stream to spawn. The near-by fish hatchery has areas for egg incubation and pools based on size of rainbow trout and sturgeon. Wish I could throw a line in!
The mascot is Herman, a 70 year old 10 foot monster sturgeon!
Driving on Historic Highway 30 Scenic Byway through the Columbia Gorge instead of the interstate, I stop at waterfalls - Horsetail...
...and Multnomah...
...where in 1995, a 400 ton boulder weighing as much as a school bus filled with concrete slid 225 ft off the rock face and landed in the upper pool drenching a wedding party on the bridge. Talk about bad timing!
And another waterfall!
It’s hard to resist these photo-ops, but they remind me of “another” bison in Yellowstone NP when Stephen complained after I stopped again, “Mom, they’re like squirrels; they’re everywhere!”
Final stop is Vista House at the top of this lovely drive where trees over-shadow and stone masonry line the roadways.
The Columbia River valley spreads below and is lush and gorgeous.
I’ll spend 3 nights in Portland with a college friend’s (Hi, Karen!) daughter and her family. I am such a country mouse, and I have loved all my time in nature. The next 8 nights will be in cities before I head into the Canadian Rockies.
Lord, protect this little mouse!
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