Falls Creek Falls - Hike

We went to the Ranger Station in our lodge and asked the Ranger where we could go that would be a beautiful hike, not a lot of people, sort of off the beaten path.  She told us about one of her favorite hikes: Falls Creek Falls.

You go down a lonely highway for 15 miles, then you turn on to a forest road for 1.8 miles (above) and the hike is 4 miles in and back.  We had a crisp, cool and sunny morning and we started out about 9am.

 We had the whole place to ourselves, just us and God.

 I was cold at first, walking in the hollows and all that shade.  My hands were so cold for about a mile until we began to climb.  We followed a crystal clear and deep creek all the way up.

 We crossed this cool suspension bridge.

 As we began to get deeper into the woods, my thoughts turned to this beautiful old hymm:

 O Lord my God,

When I in awesome wonder

Consider all

The world Thy Hand hath made,

 I see the stars,

I hear the rolling thunder

Thy pow'r thoughout

The universe displayed;

 Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

 When through the woods

And Forest glades I wander

I hear the birds

Sing sweetly in the trees;

 When I look down

From lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook 

And feel the gentle breeze;

 Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul

My Saviour God, to Thee

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

And when I think,

That God, His Son not sparing;

Sent Him to die,

I scarce can take it in;

That on the Cross,

My burden gladly bearing,

He bled and died

To take away my sin.

How Great Thou Art Our Mightly God!!!

Portland, Voodoo Donuts and Cannon Beach

Weird, dirty, grungy, gritty, tons of homeless and mentally ill people.  You couldn't walk 20 feet without being accosted by a homeless or mentally ill person.  Not my kind of city.  I felt bad for these people, they should be in shelters and hospitals and not out in the cold and rain.  In this particular area, right behind the "Keep Portland Weird" sign was a nude, nude, nude club.  Great. I didn't like Portland at all, give me that little OC Bubble any day. 

All that aside, I was excited to go to Voodoo donuts.  They are well known for putting all kinds of weird combinations together on their donuts.  I've seen them on all the food channels and it was a must see for me.  As we approached the building, I saw this huge line.  HH is not a fan of lines, he won't wait more than 20 minutes, but I told him how exotic these donuts were going to be and everyone in line raved about them so he was good to stay.  This line took about 30 minutes.   We were accosted several times by people wanting money and some guy came and sat at our table and babbled nonsense, made me very uncomfortable.  

The Voodoo Donut, raspberry filled chocolate bar.  Got to love the creativity.

 After waiting so long in line, HH decided that one donut was not good enough.  Several people in line gave us recommendations on their favorite donuts.  We got the chocolate bavarian creme filled, the maple butterscotch creme filled, a regular glazed (to see how good just a plain donut would be compared to donuts at home), The Voodoo Donut, a maple with bacon bar and a peach fritter.  They had ones with mango filling, covered in oreos, captain crunch or fruit loops, they had mocha and so many different combinations it made it hard to pick.

 The  maple bacon bar was delicious, they were all delicious.  The cake donuts were awesome, the fillings were rich, the glazes were thick and tasty.  It was worth waiting the 30 minutes in line.  We had them as a snack later and as breakfast the next morning, I was donutted out!  I definitely recommend Voodoo Donuts in Portland on 2nd Street.  Also, surrounding the area were tons of food trucks.  If Portland had been a cleaner, more scenic city, we would have stayed around for lunch because everything that was coming off those food trucks looked and smelled wonderful.

 We then drove another 1 1/2 to the seaside and a pretty little resort town at Cannon Beach.  The Drive was spectacular. Above is our destination, a beautiful stretch of sand and the rocks above called Haystack rocks.  We first went into the visitor center to ask where the most scenic part of the beach was and we were told we had to go to the beach to see the beach in a very nasty tone. Uh, no duh lady, we were just asking the tourist office where a tourist should go, if you don't like tourist, don't work in the tourist office.

 There were pretty little cottages all lined up along a small access road with this beautiful view.

We had a great lunch at a little bar and grill and the town itself had tons of boutiques and shopping.  

Multnomah Falls

 After our hike around Horsetail Falls, we made a quick 5 minute drive up the road to Multnomah Falls.  This is the whole reason we chose to come to this area.  This iconic waterfall in Oregon.  I can now cross it off my bucket list.  We found parking right away and walked over to the falls past this beautiful stone wall full of so much character.

 Past this railroad crossing and little stream that empties the falls into the river.

 First glimpse is impressive.  Wow!

 We found someone to take our picture.

 From the bridge at the middle of the falls.

This waterfall is right off the side of the road and no hiking is involved.  There is a gift shop, snack shop, pastry kiosk and restaurant.  We were starving, so we had lunch at the restaurant.  We were expecting boring, expensive food, but we had a wonderfully delicious lunch at a pretty reasonable price.  HH had the rueben sandwich (they cure their own meat) and declared it the best he's ever had, I had the fish and chips and it was tasty.  

 On our first full day, we crossed The Bridge of the Gods that crosses the river and takes you over to the Oregon side (Skamania Lodge is on the Washington side in the town of Stevenson).  We drove for about 15 minutes and we came upon Horsetail Falls where we parked and began our first hike.

 Horsetail falls is right off the side of the road, no hiking required, but we were going to hike the 3 mile loop that takes you to two more waterfalls and a scenic overlook of the river.

 It was a beautifully sunny, crisp morning and the scenery was so peaceful.

 It is an easy hike, but the first 1/3 mile or so was kinda steep with a lot of switch backs.  The great thing about going early (9am) is you don't see a lot of people and you can really appreciate the stillness and see God's creative design.  

 After about a mile, we came across Pony Falls.  This was our first glimpse as we rounded a corner.  You walk behind this waterfall to cross over to the other side.

 As they say on The Jungle Cruise, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the backside of water!"

 This is the little path we took behind the waterfall.

 This part of the country is usually really wet so moss was growing every where, but they hadn't had any rain since June and the moss was drying out.   Usually the sides of trees and hills that contain this moss are dripping with water.  

 Here is a picture of the side of a hill higher up and closer to the waterfall.  Very lush and water was dripping down the side of the hill. 

This was the last little waterfall on the hike.  Overall, the hike took about 2 hours and was about 3 miles long.  We stopped often to admire the view and take in the beauty around us.  

 Before this trip, we went to REI and we bought these LEKI hiking poles for me.  I loved them.  I would recommend them to anyone who has likes hiking.  At first, I was kind of embarrassed, but then I saw so many people with them and they helped so much, that I just enjoyed them.  They took the pressure off my knee during uphills and helped stabilize going downhill.  They also just helped to propel me along.  They are adjustable to your height and collapse down to about 18 inches for packing.  

Skamania Lodge

We left Seattle and made the three hour drive down to the Columbia River Gorge and the town of Stevenson.  We stayed at this wonderful place tucked into the scenic valley called Skamania Lodge.

The view from the lodge was incredible and something I looked forward to seeing every morning when we went down to the lobby where they had FREE COFFEE!  

 The Lodge was big but cozy.  The staff was excellent and very nice.  

 View from the lodge adirondack chairs

 We would have breakfast in the dining room (pretty reasonable) and dinner in the bar.  There was a stone fire ring with adirondack chairs and more chairs lined up in the back of lodge where you could sit and read and look at this view. There were two weddings while we were there and this view was the view from the little amphitheater where the weddings took place.  We were 40 minutes from Portland and only minutes from various incredible waterfalls and hikes.  There is a Forest Ranger Station inside the hotel that is very helpful and you can buy whatever permits you may need there.  (We only had to buy one for our hike to Falls Creek Falls which was definitely worth $5.00.)

 The rooms all had fireplaces and air conditioning.

The lobby always had a huge fire going and opposite this fireplace where these giant windows that viewed the lawn and river.  You needed your sunglasses in the morning to hangout in the lobby, the sun was so bright!

We loved it here and would go back in a minute.

Seattle - The Giant Wheel

After dinner on our last night in Seattle, we walked down to the waterfront to see the sunset and whatever else might be going on over there.

 There were lots of restaurants, cruises and souvenir shops and then there was The Giant Wheel.

 I'm not into the fly by night ferris wheel, that is rickity and rocks back and forth, but I could handle this permanent Giant Wheel with its state of the art carriages that are stabilized (much to HH's disappointment as he tried to get the carriage rocking by jumping back and forth from side to side). We were anxious that we wouldn't get on the wheel in time to witness the sunset because they were only loading 10 carriages a go round and there was a big line.  

 We went up just as the sun was going down and saw a great dark pink sunset and then the lights in the city came on and we got a great city view.

It was worth the $13 per person to witness such a great sunset and the lighted city.