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.

Columbia River Gorge

When our grandson was with us earlier in the summer, we traveled to Mount St. Helens down to the Columbia River gorge where we did some sightseeing and camped overnight, but the weather was not very good.  We hiked part way up Dog Mountain on the Washington side of the gorge, but the day started very warm but soon turned overcast and rainy and the boys had had enough before we reached the top.  We did manage to get a few pictures of some orchids that were still blooming there, but it has been a very dry summer and poor for wildflowers and native orchids.  The next day we visited Horsetail and Multnomah Falls on the Oregon side of the gorge and after wandering around there and taking some pictures, headed home.  We went home by way of Highway 97 and the last few pictures were taken where the highway crosses Umptanum and Manastash Ridges before dropping down to Ellensburg and the Kittitas Valey.

Washington

Farewell-to-Spring

(Clarkia amoena)

Sean and Jacob

Phantom Orchid

(Cephalanthera austiniae)

Yellow-stemmed form of the Western Spotted Coralroot

 (Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. aurea)

&

Vreeland's Coralroot

(Corallorhiza striata var., vreelandii)

 Camp

Jacob and Sean

Columbia River Gorge

Oregon

Horsetail Falls

Multnomah Falls

Washington Again