The first leg of the 2019 spring adventure involved a few stops in Oregon on the way to Northern California. The first night out we stayed in The Dalles located in the Columbia River Gorge on Oregon side of the river. The next morning we headed out to what was going to be our first stop of the day at the coast near Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia.
It was a beautiful morning with no clouds in the sky, the last we would see the sun for the next 8 days in fact! There is a spot just outside the Dalles where you can see all of Mount Hood, there were no clouds! A command decision was made for a slight detour to photograph the mountain. We arrived before the sun arrived on the mountain and spent the next hour watching the different faces of Mt Hood as it wakes on a cloudless morning, it was magical.
Making our way back to I84 we found a scenic bypass that took us to another amazing spot in the Gorge. Multnomah falls. It would be very easy to spend a whole week exploring the Columbia River Gorge but we had other items on the agenda so after another hour shooting in the Gorge near the falls we headed off to Astoria.
Lewis and Clark landed near Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia in the late fall of 1805 where they constructed Fort Clatsop and spent the winter before returning over the mountains to the east in the Spring of 1806. The area around Fort Clatsop is a National Historic site that is has been restored to create the feel of what it was like in the time of Lewis and Clark. It was well worth the time we spent exploring Fort Clatsop.
The second night out we stayed at Manzanita on the coast, not as far along as we had planned, but where we landed, a great little town with a nice beach. Day 3 was going to be a long one to make Crescent City CA, the start of the Redwoods adventure.
The Oregon coast is unbelievable, as is the case with the Gorge at least a week is needed to properly explore all the hidden treasures along the coast highway. Like the aviation museum in the Zeppelin Airship Hangar at Tillemook and the Dunes natural area along the coast in southern Oregon and many more to be sure.
We were lured in by the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and Otter Rock and a few other breathtaking sights along the Oregon Coast. After bouncing along the coast we did the math about 3pm and realized we were still over 4 hours outside Crescent City, so we had to end the exploration and focus on getting there!
I’ve included a few photographs of our too short exploration of Oregon in May 2019.
Enjoy!
Dean.
