Did a nice long road trip this last labor Day weekend. Started from my home base of Tacoma, WA, was headed for the beautiful Columbia RIver Gorge on the Washington Oregon border. It was a family road trip and we were taking my 8 year old niece to dig for fossils in Fossil, Oregon.
Headed south Saturday afternoon. Made a side trip to Mossyrock, WA looking for a rest stop. Made it back to the highway with no incidents.
Kept headed south to the Gorge and made it to Stevenson in the Columbia Gorge that night no problems. Ate dinner a The Crazy Pepper (a Mexican place) in Hood River, OR. Food was OK, but gave me and my Ma upset stomachs later in the evening.
The Columbia Gorge is one of my favorite places I have ever been. It is a protected scenic area, so development is pretty much impossible. It is beautiful and well preserved and an absolute joy to drive. There is windsurfing, fishing, and boating on the Columbia River, hiking and waterfalls, lots of great places to eat and stay, it is a great place to go if you can.
The west end of the Gorge towards Portland is very lush. This picture was taken as we crossed "The Bridge of the Gods," one of the toll bridges over the Columbia river:
Rolled back into the hotel Saturday night and slept until about 8:30 Sunday morning. Had to get up to make the 9 AM breakfast buffet reservation at Skamania Lodge. Yummy food if you get a chance.
Stuffed ourselves, then headed east, deeper into the gorge than we had ever been t go to Fossil:
Most travel through the Gorge is on Interstate 84. It runs on the Oregon (southern) side of the Gorge along the river. There is also Washington 14 on the north side of the river, but it is smaller (mostly two lanes) and more winding that 84. We headed out to Fossil on I-84, crossing back over the Bridge of the Gods. On the way to Fossil, we hung a Left at Big's Junction and crossed back over to the north side of the river:
The point of crossing back over to Washington was to se our secondary goal:
Yes, that's right, there is a full-size Stonehenge replica in Maryhill Washington, built as a memorial to 16 Klickitat County servicemen who died in World War 1. Sam Hill (yes, THAT Sam Hill) built the monument:
At this point, I was feeling pretty happy with how the van was performing. The fully rebuilt front kingpin suspension was finally settling down and the steering wasn't so squirrely. The rear sway bar seemed to be working good and the front and rear A/C was a godsend. Plenty of power, no overheating despite doing 70 in a loaded van in near 100 degree heat. I posed for a shot with my baby:
The East end of the Gorge gets very dry. Here is a shot out the back of Stonehenge, looking south back over the bridge to Bigg's Junction across the Columbia River:
Went back down through those orchards you see in the above picture on the north side of the Gorge. Peaches, wineries, berries, lots of little farms there. Drove back over to Bigg's Junction, topped off the gas tanks, and headed southwest to Fossil.
The drive to Fossil started with some interesting canyons that reminded me of the time I lived in Utah- dry and brown:
After the climb up from the Gorge through the canyons,the terrain changed to miles and miles of rolling hay fields. We even passed through "Hay Canyon."
It is quite a climb out of the Gorge. My van went from seal level to 3310 feet without a hiccup. I am really liking the fuel injection conversion I did on the van:
The road to Fossil was largely empty, flat, and hot. I hadn't seen heat mirages since I lived in Utah:
Made it to Fossil without a hitch, encountered one of the nastiest Honey Buckets I have seen in a while, dug some fossilized leaves, and headed back north to the Gorge.
There were reports of wildfires near Fossil, but we didn't see any active ones. We did see some burned out areas next to the road and the smoke from a fire to the south made for some spectacular orange lighting as the sun shone through the smoke:
Made it back down to the Gorge and was happy to be heading back into wetter climes. I am from Alaska, and I really prefer cool wet weather to hot dry weather.
Back west to the wet end of the Gorge:
Sun was setting and it made for some very pretty views out the window as we got closer to the hotel:
By the way, I did some night driving on this trip. On the recommendation of a friend of mine who is an automotive lighting expert, I had swapped in some GE Nighthawk headlights before the trip. These headlight are amazing. The difference in both brightness and beam pattern from the old GE halogens in incredible. I highly recommend them. I got mine at Fred Meyer for $11 each.
Stopped of in Bingen, WA to get some pizza from the Solstice pizza joint. Took it back to the hotel and vegged the rest of the night.
The next day, Monday, ate breakfast and got back on the road home to Tacoma. Stopped off in Lacey, WA to see "Cowboys and Aliens." I was pleasantly surprised at how good the film really was.
All in all, a good trip. Fun with the family, no problems with the van, and the weather was great.
Road trips are fun, but 1,000 miles in three days is more time than I like to spend behind the wheel. Still, I'm glad I did it.
Oh, yeah, sorry about the bugs on the windshield. Oregon has some big suicidal insects (including dragonflies) and the heat cooked them onto the windshield quick.