What A Day!

We went camping. On Thursday. That's the beauty of not working this summer. We can do that. Just decide to go camping. So we did.

We loaded up the car in 2 hours after the decision and we headed to Eagle Creek fish hatchery and federal park. They have just a small number of camping sites. The park was mostly empty but once schools gets out next week, it may be hard to find a site.

We love this campground because it's small and is at the trail head of a nice hike to Punch Bowl falls. We are both a year older than the last time we hiked it and we're feeling it today. Here are a couple of photos from the hike.

Missy walks the walk! What a great hiking dog!!

A really nice hike in the rain forest

Punch Bowl Falls

Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood from a different view point.

Mt. Hood in the background.

After we got back from hiking to Punch Falls, we packed up our gear and while heading for home decided to make a detour out of Hood River over to Mt. Hood and the surrounding communities. Gene took me down a road I've never been and I enjoyed every mile of it. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed several views of Mt. Hood (pictured above) . 

White River Falls from the top view.

The best part of the day was when we arrived at White River State Park. Gene thinks he may have taken me here when we first met but I honestly don't remember. That was a long time and many road trips ago (10 years). This park is in the middle of nowhere and if you didn't know there were waterfalls, you'd miss them.   When you go to the edge of the park and see what is making the noise, it's surreal. We decided to make the trek down the trail to the bottom of the falls because the sun was shining so brightly I couldn't get a good shot at the top. Plus, we're never sure if we'll ever go this way again so we try to do what's right in front of us.  My takeaway: Do it now.

Can I just tell you what a trooper our dog, Missy, is? She's gotten so fat over the winter but it did not stop her from hiking 4 miles earlier in the day and then down and back up this steep trail. When we got to the bottom, we had to go up some  jagged, steep rocks to get to a decent photo vantage. All those agility classes came in handy as she "hupped" up onto a big rusty water pipe and walked across it like she was a champion pipe walker. She was amazing.

Lower falls.

This is the lower part of the falls. You can see the mist from the upper part of the falls. I share Gene's love of waterfalls. I'm intrigued by the power of water. These falls were actually used to create power some years ago. There is an old power house where we're standing here. I'm so glad we made the hike down to it. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack climbing back up but I took it slow and easy. If this had been my last day of living, I would have died a happy woman. 

Another photographer was setting up to take photos as the sun starting its descent for the day.  I had photo-envy.

Heading back up!

As we headed back up the long hill, at least one of us didn't know if they would live to tell the story.  But we did.  And it was good.  We laid down under a tree to cool off. While we were laying there, a red-headed woodpecker landed in the tree but he was too fast to snap his pic. But I did spot the late-afternoon moon.  What a day! It doesn't get a whole lot better.  

love, susan

Cooling off.

Afternoon moon!