I heart Oregon

There’s just something about the majesty and beauty of a waterfall that makes you never grow tired of them. These past couple of days we have seen some awesome waterfalls. Yesterday we took the advice of my cousin and headed East from Portland to Multnomah Falls. Interesting story about these falls: In 1995 on Labour Day weekend, there was a wedding party standing on the bridge (which stands between the upper and lower falls) getting their pictures done. All of the sudden, a 400 ton boulder (about the size of a school bus) fell from above and when it hit the pool of water down below, a 70 ft. wave of water and gravel flew up over the bridge. The wedding party all survived with only minor injuries, but I doubt the photographer’s camera did. Too bad too, because that would have been a legendary bridal photo shoot.

Anyway, the falls were great. We enjoyed hiking along the trail and seeing giant banana slugs (almost the size of actual bananas).  And then we headed a little further East to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery, which pumps about 10 million salmon/year into the Oregon waters. We got to see a 70 year old giant sturgeon named Herman who is over 10 ft. long and 450 lbs. The kids got to feed the rainbow trout  and watch the salmon fling themselves up into the air trying to jump the gates of their tanks.

One of the other great things about Oregon is the fact that they don’t have sales tax. So Andy felt it was the perfect place to buy Annika her first dirt bike. She spent some time riding on it today, and is quite the natural. I, however, am more than a little nervous, even though she wears full protective gear. She certainly does look cute in her gear on this little mini-bike, though.

Today we headed to Crater Lake National Park. This is our second national park where we just happened to go there on an extremely cloudy/foggy day, and were unable to see the park’s best features. (The first time was at Denali in Alaska). APPARENTLY there is a lake there that’s remarkably beautiful and blue and pure and the deepest in North America. We were unable to see it due to extreme fog.

Needless to say, we could still enjoy the park’s beauty (just not the lake’s beauty). The best thing about the day was the snow. In the morning we hiked to Toketee Falls (which were majestic and amazing) and I was commenting on how quiet our footsteps were because the trail was carpeted with needles. Keep in mind, at this point of the day I was wearing SANDALS. Less than an hour later, I was building a snowman with the kids and we were all wearing boots and snowsuits. The high elevation of Crater Lake means that there is snow in October. Oh man, we had so much fun playing in the snow. Then we came back in the RV for warm chocolate chip cookies. The fun in the snow almost redeemed the National Park for us.

Andy and Annika went to one of the lectures from the Park Rangers and she told the group that back in the early 1900s when the park first gained National Park status and tourists started coming, the people’s Model T’s couldn’t make it up the mountain because the gas was fed into the tank by gravity. So they would drive to the park in reverse instead. I would love to see an old black and white picture of that. Annika became a Jr. Ranger again for Crater Lake and earned herself another fancy badge. Kai was too lazy to do the work required, so he is not a Jr. Ranger this time.

Tomorrow we are headed to Redwoods National Park in California, so here’s hoping for some sunny weather.