Old Highway 30 and the Columbia Gorge

Near the end of April we spent a few days in the Columbia River Gorge.  I had to give a presentation there on our native orchids for the Oregon Native Plant Society and the Friends of White Salmon, a presentation that was part of the "Wild About Nature Lecture Series."  We went a day early in order to spend some time along Old Highway 30, a scenic route through the gorge that includes some magnificent waterfalls and is one of our favorite places on the Oregon side of the gorge.

We visited as many of the falls as we had time for, and also photographed a few of the native wildflowers along the way before driving on to Hood River where we had our evening meal and where we spent the night before a day of hiking on the Washington side of the gorge and before Friday evening's lecture.  The weather forecast had been for rain and more rain, but in the end the weather was decent, even turning warm and sunny toward the end of our stay.

Heading east from Portland our first stop was at Angel's Rest with Vista House in the distance..

From there the next stop was at Vista House.

Stopped as we were descending into the gorge to take pictures of a stream and of some wildflowers,

Scouler's Corydalis, Corydalis scouleri, one we had not seen before.

Down at the bottom of the gorge we visited Latourelle Falls first

and photographed some wildflowers there also, Honesty, Lunaria annua, a non-native
and the Three-toothed Mitrewort, Mitella trifida.

Then the bridge and falls at Shepperds Glen.

Another stop to photograph a bank of Common Camas, Camassia quamash.

And then Wahkeena Falls where we did not hike in to see the falls up close.

Multnoma Falls was a disappointment since they were doing work on the bridge

which had been damaged by a rockfall.

Finally Horsetail Falls.

 Two days later on our way out of the gorge we took a few more shots from the Washington side
of Mount Hood and from a viewpoint at Cape Horn.

Washington Park

Washington Park in Anacortes is one of our favorite places.  It is on a peninsula on the west side of the town and looks out over the Straits of San Juan.  The name" park" is misleading, since it is mostly wild, though there are a picnic area, a boat launch and a campground in the park.  We go there often to walk the trails and the one-way road around the park and to see the wildflowers which include five species of native orchids.  I've done one post featuring the Fairy Slippers and early wildflowers.  These photos were taken on a subsequent trip when we were there to photograph the native orchids.

the trails

a few wildflowers including:

Death Camas

Common Camas

Sea Blush

Field Chickweed

Checker Lilies

Wildflowers everywhere

Mushrooms

Mica-caps

Lichens

probably the Waxpaper Lichen

 Western Red Cedar foliage

and the orchids, including:
Western Fairy Slippers

Western Spotted Coralroots

Western or Merten's Coralroots