Day 280 – Mount Hood – Columbia River Gorge Loop (Part 2)

If you like this article, please share. Thanks!

Day 280 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways
Bonneville Fish Hatchery

Another great day in the gorge!  Our morning started out at the sturgeon fish hatchery.  I was expecting to take a walk to some sort of tank; see a giant, prehistoric looking fish; and then leave…a fifteen minute stop or so.  I spent an entire hour there!  One area was historic and included several old white buildings, one of which operated as an egg incubator house.  The Bonneville Fish Hatchery incubates 15 million eggs to the eyed stage.

The hatchery purchases half a million pounds of feed to nourish 10 million fish annually.  Fish is the main ingredient in the food which also includes proteins, fats and carbohydrates.  Fish may be tracked in a variety of ways, but Oregon hatchery fish are tagged with a coded wire in their snout and have their adipose fin clipped.

This particular fish hatchery raised salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon.  Sturgeon, between five to seven feet and 120 – 150 pounds, hovered in the shaded ponds. Sturgeon this big are around 25 years old.  Females do not spawn until they are over six feet and have reached at least 20 years of age.  Male spawn once they have reached four feet and twelve years.  One pond included an underwater viewing area where we could watch the tough skinned fish with rows of bony plates called scutes feel their way along the bottom with help from four barbells which projected from their snouts.

Ducks also seemed to enjoy the fish ponds.  They flew from one pond to the next and sometimes seemed to fight for their territory or companion as they played their own version of duck, duck, goose while swimming in circles pecking at one another.  Occasionally, they raised up on their tail, fanning their wings and quacking up a storm while others simply rested on the rock wall between the pond and the flower gardens.

The salmon area wasn’t quite as tranquil as the sturgeon and steelhead ponds.  They swam into a maze like cage area and smashed against wood planks from which the water was flowing trying to follow the “current” upstream.

Ainsworth State Park

After visiting the hatchery, we stopped at Ainsworth State Park for a hike up the lush hillside to walk behind a waterfall.  The trailhead started at the base of Horsetail Falls which was visible from the historic highway.  In fact, many visitors parked in the roadside lot for a quick view of the narrow falls which cascaded over a mossy rock into a blue pool of water.  Petey and I took the somewhat steep, rocky path which switched back and forth up the hillside of ferns and lush underbrush.  With some frequency at the beginning of our walk, we passed by slugs and objects that looked like dog pooh covered in white fuzz.

There were so many of these objects with approximately the same amount of fuzz, it had to be something else.  In addition, a few frogs hid in the greenery on the trail’s edge. Eventually we made the half mile jaunt to the upper falls, known as Ponytail Falls, which couldn’t be seen from the roadway.  We walked behind the falls as it shot over the rocky shelf into the pool before continuing down the hill.

Oneota Gorge and Multnomah Falls

From these falls, we made a quick stop at Oneonta Gorge covered in an array of lichen.  I had hoped to take a trail farther into the gorge, but the only one I found was
rather over grown and being in poison oak country, I decided against trouncing through the brush. 

Instead, we went on to visit a few more waterfalls, the most popular being Multnomah Falls.  We found one of the last parking spots in an enormous lot across from a visitor’s center, gift shop, and bistro!  It was a little too commercialized for me as people were in the way of my photos!  No, actually it was a very pretty, two-tiered fall that I could barely fit into my camera lens as it plunged 620 feet over the sheer cliff.  A lovely stone bridge crossed its path at the midway point to provide glorious views.

Kahweena Falls

Our next waterfall stop was called Kahweena Falls.  From the highway it looked a like a creek rolling down the hillside, but after a short walk up the path, we came to
another bridge where the falls tumbled over a mossy edge and sprayed the bridge and surrounding area which proved challenging to get a photo without water dots!

The Vista House

We took a break from waterfalls and made our last stop of the day at the Vista House, an observatory perched on Crown Point, 700 feet above sea level.  The construction of the sandstone, temple-shaped building began in December of 1916, six months after the highway was completed.  The insides are of marble and the roof is made of matte-glazed green tile.  Needless to say, the location alone offers tremendous views of the gorge, and it is home to a geocache.  Unfortunately, someone was sitting by the hide, so I had to log a “did not find”, but in retrospect, I think it was another cacher.  Oh well!

All in all, we enjoyed another sunny, breezeless day in Oregon; a rare treat!  In fact, I’d go out on a limb and say it was hot in the balmy mid-eighties.  I’m certain my Texas friends and family would have been wearing a sweater.  I ended the day at Casey’s again…my third time in a week. Little did she know she was signing up to house a patient.  I’m so indebted to her!  She called her friend Sharon, an ER nurse, who removed my stitches and steri-stripped my wound.  I’m SO glad she was able to do it as it appears to need a little more help healing, and she suggested I rest a day.  I suppose that is what I’ll be doing tomorrow.  ETB

Map of My Road Trip Across the USA

Learn more about my road trip across the USA, or click the link below for the interactive map.

Like It? Pin It!

If you like this article, please share. Thanks!