16.04.2012 – 16.04.2012  9 °C

Early start this morning as we had a long day’s driving ahead of us. Our plan for the day was to drive along part of the Oregon trail and turn south when we got to the Dalles, with our eventual destination being Redmond (bang smack in the middle of Oregon state).

We used our cook stuff again this morning to make our brekky (cereal and a cup of tea). Our drive began about 15min east of Portland on Hwy 30 (Historic Oregon Trail). This part of the trail was made navigable in the early 20^th century and is therefore very picturesque. Much of the guide rails (on the side of the road) are actually made out of stone and mortar, so you can imagine how it looks!

First stop for us was to this little town called Troutdale. It’s one of those towns that time has forgotten here in the States and is the start (or end) of the Oregon Trail! The part of the trail that we drove along today skirts the edge of the Columbia River and is very picturesque. Huge fir trees on the edges of the road, lots of waterfalls, stone edged roads… just beautiful. We took a slight detour at one point which meant we went a few miles out of our way up the wrong way.. that part was annoying but the interesting part is that the higher we drove the stranger the trees started to look, they were all fir trees but they were covered in heavy moss! One of the more interesting sites I’ve seen so far on this trip!

Our tour had us stop at many waterfalls, culminating in a stop at the largest waterfall I’ve seen in a long time, Multnomah falls. Our drive also had us stop at this strange rest place. It was built in the early 1900s and is a rotunda that is made out of marble! Downstairs are marble clad bathrooms and a gift shop and upstairs is this open space with small stained glass windows… slightly bizarre, but apparently all the rage in the early 1900s!!

By the time we had made it to the large waterfall stop it was well after lunchtime and we were getting a little concerned that we hadn’t driven that far and that we still had a fair bit to go before our stop in the middle of Oregon at Redmond. Therefore we changed plans and instead of continuing along the Oregon trail to the Dalles, we turned off and headed south via Mt Hood. Immediately after turning off we were driving thru acres of orchards and wineries and then we started to steadily climb up towards Mt Hood. Snow started to pile up along the side of the road as we drove passed the mountain (apparently you can x-country ski all yr round at Mt Hood!).

The drive out of the Cascade Mountains (Mt Hood’s mountain range) took us into a large Indian reservation and suddenly the landscape started to change.. The fir trees slowly started to disappear and the terrain got gradually more and more arid. After a while the flat topped plateaus (Wiley Coyote style) started to appear! Amazing! This is the sort of landscape I only thought occurred in Arizona/ Utah etc but no you can also see it in Oregon!

The last fifty or so miles into Redmond were very uneventful and boring as we had entered the farming area.. flat land with nothing for as far as you can see! Our digs for the evening was the Best Western which was a really nice place to stay for the price. Tomorrow we’re off to Crater Lake National Park to hopefully see the aqua blue lake fringed with snow!

Song of the Day– Tina Turner, River Deep, Mountain High