Columbia River Gorge
Astoria, Or. Don’t know why 6 or so barges were anchored in river.
After a full summer on the Salish Sea and Puget Sound, we decided to head south down the coast to avoid inland wildfire smoke.
But, after 2 weeks on the spectacular Washington and Oregon coasts and rainforests – including some rain and fog – we longed for dryer mountains and forests, so we headed east out of Tillamook, Oregon.
We didn’t stop in Portland and headed for the Columbia River Gorge.
Mt Hood was shrouded in smoke and the temperatures were in the 80’s (too hot for me), but the smoke wasn’t as bad as I feared so we headed east up the Columbia River to the Snake, Salmon, Clearwater, and Lochsa Rivers and forests beyond.
Some scenes:
Bonneville Dam
We stopped to view the infamous Bonneville Dam – why do they always put the fish hatcheries by the dams that kill them?
But we must admit that we enjoyed the Bonneville Fish Hatchery – we never saw a live sturgeon before and the salmon were beautiful, even in a fake setting. The pet rainbow trout were pretty too!
me and my shadow
Clearwater River, Idaho:
