Oregon Trip 2012 Days 1-2

 

Day 1: Utah through Idaho to Baker City, Oregon is really just driving the first part of the long stretch out to the coast. So the first few pictures will be Drive By Photos (DBP) and possibly a few rest stop pics.

Pretty daisy at a rest stop.

I thought Utah was pretty smoky, but Idaho seems worse. (DBP)

Then we traveled through what appears to be the reason why. Miles and miles of blackened earth. (DBP)

Day 2: Baker City to Coast.

I am actually surprised with how few drive by photos I took on the way out this year. Guess with this being the 3rd year not too much caught my eye.

I have a goal to see all of the waterfalls in the Multnomah Falls area. I am almost there, but did not get any closer this year. It was pretty crowded and I don’t like fighting crowds. We stopped at this 424 trailhead and climbed up a bit, but then doubled back to the car. I see now if we had continued hiking we would have reached Oneonta Falls.

We then walked up the street, through the tunnel to go see Horsetail Falls.

Old bridge

 

Horsetail Falls. I wandered around across the stream to the other side this year so I got some different angles than before.

This is Oneonta Gorge, it looked so inviting but alas, we did not hike it. Considering the gorge I saw the next day I am a little disappointed we didn’t hike this one.

We did hike up to Wahkeena Falls, which we have done before but it’s pretty so why not do it again?

View of the Columbia River. I knew there was a waterfall further up, but all the signage failed to state that, so with no verifiable resources (meaning Andrew probably got confused and mixed up trails again (which I am totally guilty of)) we turned back. Now that I am home and looking at the trail info, I see I was right and we missed Fairy Falls which was one of the falls I was hoping to cross off my list. Darn. Note: Print out the happy little map you can find online and take it with you. It helped me year 1, and 2, I did not have it this year and missed out. The signage in the area is alright, but not perfect, obviously.

Moss covered trees

From the other side.

Wahkeena Falls with the stream above, and below.

And the stream even further below.

Quick breeze by of Portland. (DBP) One of these days I might explore this city, but driving through has always driven me bonkers. A little less so today, but still.

Nearing the coast we started getting rained on. (DBP)

And finally the coast! Our room was right on the ocean which was nice.

Well I was going to add day 3 in this post, however its going to be long so I will stop here and and leave day 3 to be its own post. Stay tuned.