Tour of the Falls

Friday Rod decided he was going to spend the day washing our dirty, dirty 5th wheel. When we were parked at his mom's house we really had to squeeze in between the garage and the pine trees. Well, since we were there for 3 months it really got dirty and there was a little bit of mildew on that side. It's been pretty embarrassing driving around with it like that so since the weather was going to be nice and he had checked with the office to make sure it was okay to wash today was going to be the day.

Mark, Dortha, Jim, Ellie and I decided we were going to see the waterfalls that are in the area in the Columbia River Gorge. The Columbia river is the dividing line between Washington and Oregon and if you're along the river you find yourself crossing back and forth throughout the day. The Oregon side has the interstate and the scenery with the waterfalls (over 77 of them!). It's usually really windy in the gorge which makes it world famous for kite surfing and windsurfing. This was our view at our first stop at Crown Point.


On to the waterfalls. At our first waterfall we encountered a film crew there to film a Kia commercial. Their "camera car" broke down as we were getting there and one of the guys asked Mark for some jumper cables.



Okay, back to the waterfall



And on to the next one...



And the next...




And the next...



And then the BIG one!! You can read about it by clicking here



And one more...



From there we stopped at the Bonneville Dam where there is a fish ladder for the salmon. The salmon are currently on their way upstream to their birthplace and the fish ladder just makes it easier for them to get by the dam. They have put in windows under the water so you can see the fish swimming upstream. They even have somebody there that actually counts them




On the same property there is a fish hatchery. This is where they come back to if they were hatched there. It's amazing to me that they are hatched, go out to sea for anywhere from 2 to 4 years and then swim back upstream to the exact same place to spawn and then die. Nothing stops them from getting back here except maybe the orca, sea lions or fishermen and some of them are pretty beat up by the time they arrive.



The sturgeon also spawn in this area and they have a few of them that live at the hatchery. The biggest is "Herman" who comes in at 10 feet!!


We finally left the hatchery after watching the salmon for what seemed like hours. It was SO interesting to watch them trying to get back to the tanks where they were "born". We stopped to pick up Rod and went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.


Yesterday was College football day and today is Pro football day. We were thinking about moving on to the Oregon coast tomorrow but we're waiting on our mail and it doesn't come here until about noon so we'll probably stay another day and move out on Tuesday. Stay tuned...