8-26-17 Eastward Ho… (WA, ID, MT, ND)

Badlands, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We finished up our visit on the west coast of Oregon and headed east.  We had already visited most of the Rocky Mountains last year, so we were going to quickly pass across them, with a few stops, along the way to our destination of the Great Plains.  

Mt St Helens Post Eruption 1980 (NPS Photo)

Our first stop was Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington.  We had finished last year’s trip at Mt Rainer, but it was too late in the season to explore Mt. St. Helens, even though it was close by.  Although it was now August, weather was again a problem.  This time it was not the unusually heavy snows that prevented us from exploring many of the higher roads or trails, or the wet from melting snow causing mudslides and road or trail closures, but now it was the heavy smoke from Canadian and Washington forest fires causing very low visibility.

Mt St Helens Barely Visible in Smoke

We could barely see Mt. St. Helens from the Visitor Center, where the volcano  usually towers over the area.  We stopped at numerous overlooks along the way, but couldn’t see much of anything.  We finally got to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, above the center of the 1980 eruption, where you would normally see all the details of the eruption: the eruption crater, the new magma mounds in the center of the crater (which are trying to rebuild the mountain), the blast zone, and the square miles of mud, ash, and pyroclastic flows.  We were disappointed as we could see Almost Nothing; we could only barely make out a slight outline of the mountain with no detail.  We listened to two ranger talks on the deck overlooking the blast area, and the ranger told us that the visibility the previous day was worse and the smoke so bad they had to do their talks inside.  We hiked a short portion of the Eruption Trail, but the visibility was no better.  The devastation area was huge, over 234 square miles; 57 lives were lost, even though they evacuated everyone they thought was at risk.  The eruption destroyed more than 10 times the area they originally thought was at risk.

Replanted Area in Foreground (30 yrs later)

One of the most interesting aspects of our visit to Mt. St. Helens was the comparison of two different approaches for recovery of the desolated forest land.   Weyerhaeuser, which owns a significant amount of forest land around Mt. St. Helens, lost hundreds of square miles of forests.  We visited Weyerhaeuser’s educational visitor center.  After the eruption, they rapidly harvested all the blown down or burnt trees (they were dead anyway) from their privately owned land, which took 2 years, and then replanted almost all the land over the following 7 years.  After experimenting with planting seedlings in the ash, they learned they needed to dig through the ash and plant seedlings in the native soil. Today, 30 years after the replanting, recovery seems to going well.  The replanted land is vibrant, green, with a healthy ecosystem for most of the plants and animals normally found in the southern Washington region. 



Weyerhaeuser and Parkland Boundary

Alternatively, the US Forest Service took the understandably different approach on the public land.  The Forest Service has used the “let nature take its course approach”, and there is nothing growing yet where the ash, blast zone, pyroclastic flow, and tree knockdowns occurred.  It is an interesting comparison. There are a couple of overlooks where you can see the demarcation line between the public and private land which was impacted the exact same way…the public land is still brown and desolate, while the private land is a vibrant green.  We think this is one time we can say that the man approach is more productive; they have accelerated the recovery by decades, even hundreds of years!  We are fortunate to have the public and private approaches to see.

Coeur d' Alene Lake

We left our last volcanic stop of our journey and the Northwest and continued east to Coeur d’ Alene Idaho, a lake we had heard a lot of great things about.  It is a large beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, and by large homes and resorts; our campground was right on the lake with a small sandy lake beach.  There is very limited public beach access to the lake – we saw only a few public “beaches”…. some only 50 foot wide and they were packed.  It was very hot, and we still had a lot of smoke from the fires, so it was hot and humid. 

Smokey Sunset over Coeur d' Alene Lake

Celebrating Bob's BD

The lake was full of “toys”:  boats of all sizes, personal water craft, kayaks, swimmers, skiers, even a parasailer.  There were quite a few marinas with lots of boats in them, but surprisingly, most of the boats were not out on a hot Sunday in August (the lake was already crowded with the few boats that were out). We were there for only 2 nights since we only wanted to see what all the Coeur d’Alene excitement was about – it is a beautiful lake. It is also a winter playground due the significant snow, but probably too cold for us.  We celebrated Bob’s BD (the 30^th anniversary of his 43^rd BD), with an excellent dinner at Beverly’s at the Coeur d’ Alene Resort.  The smoky sky did make for beautiful, very red sunsets over the lake.



Two of Great Falls Missouri River Cataracts

Great Falls Dangerous Beauty

Great Falls Dam and Falls

Our next stopover was Great Falls, Montana and we explored another of Lewis and Clark’s stopping points along their journey.  On their way west, Lewis and Clark spent three weeks near what is now Great Falls to portage 18 miles around the five large waterfalls and rapids on the Missouri River.  The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center in Great Falls documents their entire trip and highlights the Great Falls portage. Each of the 5 falls that presented such a problem now has a dam on it: the same elevation drop that provides for the beautiful falls that had to be portaged, also provides the drop power needed for hydroelectric power.  The rapids and smaller falls have been covered by the resulting lakes behind each dam.  Each of the dammed falls have very little water going over the rock drops; most of the water goes into the hydroelectric plants.  The falls must have been spectacular at one time…as when Lewis and Clark first described them.

We continued east and camped in Hardin Montana to see the Little Big Horn National Monument, the site of Custer’s Last Stand.   One of the few victories for the Native Americans during the great Sioux War of 1876, the fight was an overwhelming victory against the 7th Cavalry, a force of 700 men led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.  Five of the 7th Cavalry's twelve companies were annihilated and Custer was killed.  Here the Lakota, trying to protect their way of life and families, fought back when Custer attacked them.  Unfortunately, the Army intelligence was bad - they now believe there were over 11,000 Native Americans at the encampment, not 1,000 they expected   

Markers where Custer and His Soldiers Fell, Last Stand Hill

The Battle of the Little Big Horn was the Indians’ greatest victory and the Army’s worst defeat in the long and bloody Plains Indian War. The Indians were not allowed to revel in the victory for long, however. The massacre of Custer and his 7th Cavalry outraged many Americans and only confirmed the image of the bloodthirsty Indians in their minds, and the government became more determined to destroy or tame the hostile Indians. The Army redoubled its efforts and drove home the war with a vengeful fury. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations.

Lakota Indian Marker, Little Bighorn

Since the soldiers who fought at Last Stand Hill were all killed, the only Army Calvary accounts were from a nearby company who were fighting about 5 miles down the ridge.  They buried the fallen soldiers a couple of days later.  The soldier’s accounts differed from the surviving native Indian oral accounts about the battle of Last Stand Hill, and not surprisingly, the historians believed and used the Army’s version for a century.   Interestingly, a fire destroyed the grass on the entire Last Stand Hill and much of the battlefield in 1984.  The fire exposed many “newly discovered” battlefield artifacts which allowed archeologists the opportunity to more thoroughly investigate the battlefield.  Metal detectors and modern technology were used to find the spent cartridges and archeologists were able to reconstruct the battle since the Calvary and the Native Americans used different weapons.  Guess what? The archeologist-reconstructed version of the battle better matched the Crow people’s oral history version…and history was rewritten.  There are markers showing where the fighters in the battle died:  white for the soldiers, and red for the Native Americans.  Only a few of the fallen Native Americans places are marked because most of their families did not want them to be marked. 



Pompey's Pillar

Clark Carving on Pompey's Pillar

William Clark, of Lewis and Clark, stopped at Pompey’s Pillar (a uniquely isolated sandstone tower and now a US National Monument) on the Little Missouri River during his return trip to St. Louis. Clark and Lewis split up on the return trip so that Lewis could go north on the Missouri River to find the upper reaches of the Louisiana Purchase. There are Native American pictographs on the sandstone pillar and unfortunately, graffiti carved over some of the pictographs.  The most famous carving, “W. Clark July 1806”, was carved in the sandstone by William Clark and described in his detailed notes and maps.  The carving is now protected under glass since it is the only physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark journey along the entire route.  

Pictograph, Pictograph Cave, MT

Pictograph Cave Exhibit Picture

We also visited Pictograph Cave State Park in Montana.  The pictographs and petroglyphs have been fading and eroding quickly; some of the sandstone is flaking off taking the historic “artwork” with it.   An entire turtle pictograph fell off in 2013.  We hiked up to the cave; the exhibits showed pictures of the pictographs in much better condition, as they were only 10-15 years ago, but the actual artwork now almost impossible to see.  If the exhibits had not been there…you would not have found the pictographs.  The ranger told us that you cannot see even half of what you could see 5 years ago.  Erosion, humidity, etc are all working on the artwork. If you want to see this, you need to go soon.

Painted Cliffs, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Our final stop on this eastward trip was Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands of North Dakota (as opposed to the more famous South Dakota Badlands).  Thank you Teddy! We finally got away from the smoke and haze from the western fires… but were back into cooler and wet weather.  The ND Badlands are beautiful in a more rugged way, and the colors on the exposed cliffs are vibrant.  The herds of bison were similar to those in Yellowstone; the females and babies in large herds together, with the males singly out in the remote areas.  However, since rutting season was not yet over, there was a male with each small group of females…trying to do their “thing”. 

Male Bison Grazing Next to Our Jeep

This national park gave us a new respect for Teddy Roosevelt. He is often considered “the conservationist president”, but as a young man he went to ND to hunt bison before they disappeared.  In the span of 25 years, bison went from 40 – 60 million to just 250 to 300 head in private hands.  The decimation of bison, and the eradication of elk, bighorn sheep, deer and other game species was a loss which Roosevelt felt indicative of society's perception of our natural resources. After living as a rancher in ND in his early 20s, he saw the effects of overgrazing, and suffered the loss of his ranches because of it. While many still considered natural resources inexhaustible, he realized that was not the case. 

Bison Herd, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Conservation increasingly became one of Roosevelt's main concerns. After becoming president in 1901, in addition to pushing for the Panama Canal, Roosevelt used his authority to protect wildlife and public lands by creating the United States Forest Service (USFS) and establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks, and 18 national monuments by enabling the 1906 American Antiquities Act. During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt protected approximately 230 million acres of public land. 

We have seen much of what Teddy Roosevelt and others have protected and preserved during our 3-year “see all the national parks” journey, and we are grateful for it.  We feel blessed and fortunate to be healthy and to be able see much that our wonderful country has to offer. 

Feel free to pass the blog link on to anyone who might be interested.  

Best to all,

Linda and Bob  

8-5-17 Waterfalls Galore, Funky Town, and Oregon Friends (No OR)

No Oregon Coast

From the high desert of Bend, Oregon, we headed west and north to Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, then further west to Astoria and the northern coast to complete our visit to Oregon.  

Baja Peninsula

Our first stop from Bend was in Lebanon, to visit with our “new” friends, Don and Linda Gerig.  We met them last September while on a Lake Chelan boat trip in the Washington Cascades and discovered our mutual interests of motorhomes and Baja, Mexico.  They and their Mexican relatives own an RV park and houses near LaPaz Baja, and they drive their motorhome to the Baja from Oregon every year for a few months stay.  During our Christmas trip last year to the Baja peninsula, we stopped at their RV Campground and met their niece; we missed Don & Linda by a few days – they were “camping” and enjoying life on a Baja Sea of Cortez beach.   

Linda G, Bob, Linda M, Don wine tasting

Since we missed them in La Paz, when Don & Linda invited us to stop by their Lebanon Oregon home, we took them up on their kind offer.  We parked our coach in one of the RV parking spots they have created on their beautiful 13 acre “wedding venue” property, which they rent for weekend weddings. A great business concept successfully managed by Don’s daughter in law. We had a fun filled few days with them tasting wine at the Willamette Valley as well as consuming Don’s own “estate” (home grown and bottled) fruit wine on their backyard deck overlooking the beautiful “backyard”.  Before leaving, we helped Don bottle some of his quite good fruit wine – we particularly liked the blackberry.  We had a great time and it is interesting how you sometimes can quickly make friends in the darndest places! 

Linda hiking BEHIND Silver Falls

While there, we took a day trip to Silver Falls State Park and hiked part of the “Trail of 10 Waterfalls”.  Differential erosion of the very hard basalt rock layers over softer rock has formed waterfalls with large “caves” under the waterfall’s edge.  It was fun to hike behind the waterfalls at several of the falls and actually watch the water fall from “behind” the water; we have seen so many from the front, this was different and the mist was nice and cooling.  

International Rose Test Garden, Portland

To our surprise, the City of Portland was smaller than we anticipated, and with a huge traffic problem.  It is sandwiched between hills and the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.  Much of the waterfront is industrial and we could not find a great place to just sit and watch people and boats go by.  The traffic was horrible; we quickly learned to plan our excursions either before or after rush hour traffic, or travel outside the city.  Similar to Seattle, the hills, water, and early development have caused constrains on upgrading the road system.  One bridge we had to use to drive into the City or to go south was on Interstate 5;  a 2-lane bottleneck on a 4 and 5 lane highway! Not sure why they don’t find a way to build another bridge.  

Unique Color Rose in Test Garden, Portland

Serenity in Japanese Garden, Portland

We enjoyed the downtown venues we visited.  Most beautiful were the extensive gardens; we especially enjoyed the awesome rose collection at the International Test Rose Garden and the very serene Japanese Gardens.  Skyline Drive at the top of the hills to the west of downtown provided only an occasional view of downtown in between overgrown tall and thick trees.  We enjoyed sampling a few of the many distilleries, wineries and coffee houses in and around Portland.  It seems to us that there is more drive up coffee/espresso stands than there are gas stations!  The pure number of “body-warming” liquids available at these locations is probably an indication of the usual cold, damp, weather.  However, we enjoyed great warm summer weather which included a lot of sunshine and no rain (foggy one morning, but gone by noon). 

Spruce Goose, Evergreen Air and Space Museum

We made quite a few day excursions outside the city.  A visit to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum was fun.  It houses an excellent collection of planes, but the BIG draw is to see the Spruce Goose, the huge wooden airship designed and built by Howard Hughes.  There is also a space museum building.  We would recommend a visit. 

Mt Hood over Mirror Lake

We took a day drive around the south end of Mt Hood which was enjoyable and beautiful.  Mt Hood towers over the Portland skyline (you can also see Mt. St. Helen from town).  The Mt. Hood Scenic Byway is beautiful, with several glacial lakes at the base of Mt. Hood.  Timberline Lodge, situated at the tree line of Mt Hood, is another example of a beautiful historic (depression-era) lodge.  The lodge is the base for climbers ascending the mountain, and there is year round skiing available.  It is funny to see people in ski clothes carrying skis when we are in shorts and tee shirts!    

Larry, Bob and Linda

While in Portland, we spent quality time with Larry Munkres, a very long-time friend (we don’t call them “old” friends anymore); fellow geologist and naval intelligence officer.  Bob has known Larry since 1967 in Navy Officer Candidate School and Pensacola flight school.  We were able to share some great meals and fabulous memories. Larry and his friend Judy even joined us for an extended lunch at our RV.  It was great to see Larry again since he visited us at Four Vistas in Shingle Springs, CA.  Interestingly, we unexpectedly met Larry on the street in Hilo Hawaii many years ago. We always have a grand time whenever we get together.  

Vista House Overlooking Columbia River Gorge

The Columbia River Gorge was our next stop.  Directly east of Portland, the gorge extends for 75 miles along the Columbia River.  The topography on the north (Washington) side is very different from the southern Oregon cliffs.  On the Oregon side, the cliffs extend straight up from the river, often with minimal room for a road and railroad (which preceded any roads by many years).  The high cliffs have an incredible number of beautiful, tall waterfalls right along the road; the melting snow and glaciers on Mt Hood provide a year-round supply of water.  The north side is gently sloped, with many farms and ranches along the way.   



Columbia Gorge Sternwheeler, Cascades Locks

The drive along the Oregon shore of the Columbia River is beautiful and has been a tourist destination for decades, even before the roads were built.  Prior to the roads, carriages and boats (sternwheelers and sidewheelers) were the main means of travel.   We enjoyed a day trip on a sternwheeler out of Cascades Locks, similar to those used in the late 1800s.   The river used to be very difficult to navigate with a lot of rapids and even some falls - described eloquently by Lewis and Clark in many interesting historical exhibits and museums along their 3 year route.  However, with construction of the Bonneville Dam (which we toured) and 14 other dams throughout the river and tributaries (including the Snake), the Columbia is now a series of long stretches of flat, but rapidly flowing water.  The dams provide much needed flood control and provide most of the electrical power needs of the northwest. With the constant strong winds coming up river, it is now a wind surfing and kite boarding meca.  

Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge

We camped right in the heart of the waterfall section at a state park on the Oregon side and managed to see and hike almost all of the numerous waterfalls and beautiful vistas as far east as The Dalles.  The waterfalls were all quite beautiful and with the huge snow this past winter, all were fully flowing.    

Close up, Waterfall, Columbia River Gorge

Astoria Column

We went back to the coast for our final stop in Oregon.  We camped in Fort Stevens State Park, just west of Astoria, on the huge sand spit formed by the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean.  Astoria, a fun but funky former lumber, shipping, and fishing community of 8,000 residents, bills itself as the oldest western city in the US; who knew? While there are no wineries nearby, there are many craft beer breweries. This is good for a fishing and lumber village transitioning to a tourism-based town.  We visited the Lewis and Clark National Monument to see the site where Lewis and Clark spent their last winter before heading back east (last year we toured the sites where Lewis and Clark initially arrived at the Pacific Ocean).  The Maritime Museum in Astoria is a must-see if you are there!     

35 Foot Tall Cape Meares Light

We spent one day driving south along the coast, and stopped at numerous overlooks and bays.  South of the Columbia River delta, the northwestern coast is dominated by erosion resistant volcanic (Columbia River Basalt Group) headlands interspaced by small bays made by creeks and rivers (much like the southern Oregon coast).  We stopped at the “shortest” lighthouse, only 38 feet high above the ground!  Of course, it was on top of a very high cliff, so it still could be seen 20 miles out to sea. This light is no longer in operation; only two lighthouses are operational in Oregon.  With sightseeing on this last section of coast completed, we have now, at one time or another,  driven the entire Pacific coast of the lower 48, and have visited every lighthouse along the way! 

Northern Oregon Coast

Because we had no internet or TV connections in the state park, we took advantage of the excellent facilities and hospitality at the Astoria and Seaside Elks Lodges and American Legion Posts.  There is always a welcoming group of people and a great watering hole when traveling.   

One of the interesting and unusual things we found in Oregon, we laughingly call the “No Unemployment Law”.  All gas stations require that attendants pump the gas.  Considering the number of gas stations in the state, this probably noticeably reduces the unemployment rate.  What is funnier, is that you still have to get out of the car to clean the windshield….they only pump the gas as required by law.   

USCG Rescue Ship Crossing Columbia Bar (USCG photo)

Bob had always wanted to cross the Columbia River entrance channel bar; the bar is 3 miles long and considered one of the most dangerous bar crossings in the world.  Because of the huge volume of water coming down the Columbia River, the conditions of the river water meeting the sea swell and waves in such a wide inlet routinely causes huge, steep waves that even the largest ships have trouble navigating.  The US Coast Guard trains their Search and Rescue crews to use their self-righting rescue boats on this bar.   

Bob's Limit of 2 Salmon

Bob wanted more of a challenge, but the ocean was behaving itself while we were there, so there were no huge waves to be seen (only a very normal 6 foot swell).  The only way Bob could “cross the bar” was to go on a deep sea fishing trip.  He went fishing on a 50 foot boat, unspectacularly crossed the bar, fished around Buoy #2, and had fun catching his limit of two salmon – one Coho (silver) and one Chinook.  As with commercial fishing, the catch limit allowed has decreased significantly over the past few years, and you can only keep hatchery raised fish; he had to release all the “wild” salmon he caught.   Bottom line, it appears the salmon are being fished out (we were told that regulations and economics are making it difficult for private hatcheries to make any money, therefore fewer and fewer).    We are glad we now have a freezer of salmon to enjoy – Thanks Bob!   

This finishes up our visit to the west coast and we are now headed east, with a few stops along the way.  Next destination: drive across Washington,  Idaho and Montana to the Dakotas and the plains.   

Again and with each blog we write, we remind ourselves how blessed and fortunate we are to be healthy and able to make this wonderful trip.  We continue to be very grateful!

Feel free to pass the blog link on to anyone who might be interested.   

Best to all,

Linda and Bob