Columbia River Gorge - Day 1 Oct 14

Varied Thrush

Checking the weather forecast, the upper Columbia River Gorge looked warmer and dryer than the Willamette Valley or the Coast, so we decided on a four day excursion.  The Gorge has been a magical place for Jeanette and I since our honeymoon bicycle tour in May of 1993.  We have continued to seek out and enjoy it's outstanding natural beauty through  the years. However, we were surprised that it has been two and a half years since our last visit here in the Spring of 2019.  We find our memory of details have faded, and require some effort to navigate routes, and locations.  Thank goodness for blogging in Cascade Ramblings, I can look back and refresh our minds.

On this trip we left Dallas at 7:20AM with Jeanette driving, making our first stop at the French Prairie Rest Area for a driver swap.  Our second stop was at Benson State Park, for a bathroom stop and driver switch. This park is located just before busy Multnomah Falls.  It's a quiet, beautiful place, which we shared with this pair of Varied Thrushes, a lone Great Blue Heron, and three entertaining River Otter. We next exited off I-84 to check Cascade Locks.  Too much change going on here, we miss the quiet of years past.  The Best Western was our  rendezvous point with Patty and Kordell for lunch, and birding together at the mouth of Hood River.  You can see our bird list and photos here.  Next, a little down time parked along the river front.  Free WiFi was so slow I used my phone with our cell booster for a good connection. We met Patty and Kordell for pizza at Solstice Woodfired Pizza before traveling to the Washington side of the Columbia to Spring Creek Hatchery Road.  We learned on a previous trip here in 2019 that a Discover Pass allows overnight parking. We had a quiet night and two good bars of cell service.  

Great Blue Heron