Hey Mark! Pull my finger.
For someone who loves efficiency in a touring plan, backtracking is like nails on a chalkboard,
but I found that there was often no other choice on this trip. Many destinations had only one road in or out.
but true.
The observatory is named for David Johnston, a geologist who called in the eruption of May 18, 1980 and then perished not long after.
That's cool. The naming part, not the perishing part.
If you were alive, you probably remember hearing about the eruption at the time. I was only 5 ½ years old,
I was a few years older and remember it well.
When the eruption finally came, the mountain literally blew its top.
Yep. Almost as bad as when my DW does.
Okay, fine, Mt St Helens is worse....a little.
causing an enormous mud-and-landslide that wiped out hundreds of thousands of acres, snapping the trees of the forest like matchsticks.
Yep and formed a canyon very similar to the grand canyon's "millions of years" layers in days.
This was followed by huge blasts of ash clouds, which blackened the skies as far east as Spokane. It ultimately left significant deposits in 11 states and two Canadian provinces.
At the time, I'm sure they were not happy, but given the fertility of volcanic soil, guessing it's good for crops now.
Ruh roh.
It must have made a huge impression on me, since I remember it all these years later.
Exploding volcanos, exploding helicopters, come on, what's not to be impressed by?
Really, all it succeeded in doing was making us seasick.
That's not good. Sometimes film makers just don't consider this.
We only made it partway before being overtaken by swarms of bloodthirsty gnats
Did Julie slug you again?
:anticipation: :hoping:
Once Drew got his badge (he was especially proud of this one—I guess 5-year-old boys being impressed by volcanoes runs in the family)
So, he's likely to enjoy exploding helicopters when he's older? I may be wrong, but when I see the power of nature, whether it be volcanos, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, I'm always fascinated. Sad for the damage or loss of life it causes, but it is still fascinating/intriguing.
The view was better out the other window, as Mount Hood was visible.
Much better view.
so we crawled across the Columbia River.
Most people would swim. I presume no water if you crawled.
Eventually we got through the bottleneck and were able to reach the Historic Columbia River Highway.
So, you were shrunken size like
@pkondz in TSL?
Right off the bat, I messed up.
We expect this, you know?
I had meant to stop to get a photo of
this famous view (that’s Vista House in the foreground), but I completely missed the overlook. It’s called the Portland Women’s Forum State Scenic Viewpoint, which I had looked up and should have remembered.
The crack TR reporting we've come to know and love.
We did stop at the actual Vista House, from which we could at least see this view:
Nice!
A little ways down the road, we stopped at the parking area for Latourell Falls. An overlook gave us a nice view of this 249-ft. drop.
From that picture, it doesn't look that tall. Pretty though.
On the not-so-nice side, dozens of people had decided to leave the path and swim or sunbathe at the base of the falls, which made it very difficult to get photos without random strangers in the shot. Win some, lose some.
That kinda stinks, but you know
@pkondz is really good a photoshopping. I don't use photoshop, I use GIMP, but I can do some pretty good stuff too.
You know dam well what’s coming here.
You're dam straight we do. A bunch of dam jokes.
I got a kick out of these signs at the entrance. I was wondering if they put a new one up every time somebody hits the bridge.
That one is a bit puzzling to me...first off the difference between 15 and 12'4" does not look like 2'8" difference, but the difficult thing would be truck trailers are not round, so they would almost have to go straight through the middle to have any chance of not "partially" have clearance.
I feel bad for the people who are forced to stand there and count the dam fish as they swim by.
I think it would be a dam fine job if they paid me enough and didn't expect accuracy. I could be like the count on sesame street...uh one, uh two, uh three, they're paying me a lot to do this, ha ha ha.
This is the most popular waterfall in the gorge, and you’ve no doubt seen it on countless postcards and Oregon tourist brochures. It’s the one with the famous bridge over the lower falls.
To be honest, I can't say I've seen too many Oregon tourist brochures, so possible not. I've seen a lot of waterfalls, so hard to say if I recall seeing this one before. Pretty.
Naturally, the DIS's crappy photo interface is not letting me post any portrait-style photos, which is all I have of this waterfall. So, here's what it would look like if gravity pulled water sideways.
So, not a fan?
So, instead of the backside of water, you give us the front side of sideways water. Sheesh!
This also provided a chance for Julie to give Dave a ride for old times’ sake, just like when he was a toddler.
I did that with a couple of my kids. I don't think we got a picture, but had a good laugh.