The Beautiful Gorge

 Today we had planned to go up the Columbia River as far as the town of Hood River, crossing over the bridge there, and coming back on the Washington side. We saw this sign naming a waterfall we hadn't stopped to see on previous trips. It looked too intriguing to pass up this time.

The stream was broken into several stair steps or benches as it dropped from high above, according to the 'lay of the land', and made several waterfalls. The 'Dell' was actually a sort of high sided bowl made up of moss and fern covered rocky cliffs, very beautiful.

 I love this old and mossy walled trail. It's obviously been there a long, long time.

 Mr. Keith at the bottom of the trail.

 The Old Columbia River Highway is so beautiful! As we drove along in our little Focus we tried to picture the model T's and similar ancient autos that must have been the first vehicles to travel this route. It's narrow and curvy and shadowed by huge firs and maples along the way, though very well kept up for the modern travelers.

 On the Washington side we cruised into White Salmon, a quaint little town right across the river from Hood River. I love this old Catholic Church.

 

And last, this photo shows why we can never drive our 5th wheel on this highway, the one on the Washington side! At 13 feet 9 inches we'd lose part of our roof. There were 4 or 5 tunnels bored through the rock walls at river's edge, some lower than this 13 foot 6 inch one.