On the Road - Changing Scenery

Today's journey was a transition from the Pacific Northwest to the hot, dry eastern part of Oregon. After four awesome days at Mount Hood Village, it was time to head east. We had a final glimpse of the backside of Mount Hood as we drove around it. 

Oregon has some cute town names such Zigzag, Bend, and Boring, which has a sign saying it is a sister city to Dull, Scotland.

We drove through an area called the Fruit Loop where there are many apple and pear orchards, peaches, berries, lavender. You can shop at one of the many fruit stands or pick your own. We didn't stop this time as we had a trek across the state to make, but maybe next time.

We went through the Columbia Gorge, a canyon where the Columbia River crosses the Cascade Mountain Range. The highway went alongside the wide river and we could see Washington on the other side. This must be a very windy area because there were a bunch of huge wind turbine windmills stretched along the ridge.

The scenery and weather changed when we crossed from the west side of the Cascades to the east side due to the mountains trapping the moisture from the Pacific Ocean. One minute we were looking at lush green forests; in about an hour's time, the landscape was treeless, dry, barren, but still pretty.

Columbia River

Where did the trees go?

We noticed the sharp blue sky turning hazy and thought it was part of the landscape change. Turned out to be smoke from a wildfire burning up ahead. Near Pendleton, firefighters were battling the fire and we could see small burning patches right beside the interstate. Just two days previously, the interstate had been shut down in both directions due to the wildfire jumping the highway. We luckily timed our crossing right, as the interstate again had to be shut down later on the day we drove it.

We were back on the historic Oregon trail that the pioneers took when they were heading west, only our direction was eastward. We made it to the Oregon/Idaho border and stopped for two nights in a place where the pioneers likely camped near the Snake River.

Good night!