Oregon Coast Trip - Days 2 & 3 - The Dalles, Columbia River Gorge

On Day 2, we drove from Boise to a town on the Columbia River called The Dalles (we think they include "The" in the town name to distinguish from Dallas, Texas). This day of driving was one of our worst of the trip. We had traffic three different times because of crashes on the road. The worst traffic was right after I took over driving (I have really bad luck with hitting traffic on long trips when I drive). The 2 lane freeway came to a complete stop. After about 15 minutes, people started getting out of their cars. Then we started to notice people leaving the freeway and driving up the onramp. 30 minutes in, Danny decided to follow those other cars up the onramp. We ended up taking this detour that led us onto a dirt road through some windmills(we were following google map directions). It was a crazy caravan.

Eventually we made our way back to the freeway, feeling happy with our decision. That is, until 20 minutes later when we passed the truck pulling a trailer that was parked next to us on the freeway during the stop. We really wanted to continue believing that we had saved all of this time on our crazy detour. We pulled into our hotel an hour later than we should have, quickly headed out to the restaurant we had picked out for that evening-A Hawaiin BBQ place(because it closed at 8 and it was about 7:45). It actually allowed indoor dining, so that was nice. Tyler liked the Tiki's all over the restaurant (Camden was scared of them).

Alyssa was disappointed that the sun was close to setting by the time we finished eating. She and Danny were making plans to get up at 6 am to go to the courts in the morning, until he looked at a satellite view of the courts and saw lights. So they rushed off to the courts while I explored the pool with the other kids. Unfortunately, the lights had to be reserved ahead of time to turn on, so they only had about 20 minutes of daylight to play in. We were glad to have this day come to an end.

The next morning, after our hotel breakfast which the employees dished up for us, we explored the Columbia River Gorge. I picked out about 5 waterfall hikes that I thought were doable. The first was called Wahclella Falls. This was the perfect hike, and since we were there early-ish, it wasn't too crowded (we were there the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend) or hot. Actually, I think we were kind of cold to start. It was soooooo green and so beautiful.

I loved the deep blue-green pool that the waterfall fell into. 

After our hike, we continued on along the Columbia river. This Horsetail Falls was our next stop. The waterfall was right off of the road, so no hiking necessary. Unfortunately, no parking available either. The lot was packed. Danny dropped us off and circled in the car while we took a couple of quick pictures. I love the rainbow in the mist.

We were going to go to Multnomah Falls, too, but the parking lot and area looked like Disneyland crowds, so we continued on. We were getting tired by this point anyways. And my navigating skills were lacking a bit, so I didn't think I could successfully find the next hike on my list anyways. We decided to drive up to the lookout area we had visited the last time we were here. After a lot of frantic searching, we guessed it was called Vista House. The view was still amazing up there and we actually found a parking space.

After the stop at Vista House, we continued on towards Portland.