Day 17 – Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood Railroad

Today was the day for our ride on the Mt. Hood Railroad and for a close-up view of Mt. Hood. We had seen Mt. Hood yesterday from Portland but it was a bit hazy in the distance. The conditions were much better today and we got a great view of the mountain. 

The ride today was also Wild West themed and included a singing sheriff and outlaws who robbed us of play money. Also a bit hokey, but the brunch was pretty good.

Hood River Valley Pears

The train runs along the Hood River and through a valley filled from one side to the other with pear orchards. We discovered that the Hood River Valley is the number one producer of Anjou pears in the US (80% of the crop) plus a large percentage of Bartlett and Starkrimson pears. The trees were loaded with pears and we learned from a farmer in the town where we stopped that picking was beginning tomorrow on the west side of the valley and we saw that they already had containers in fields to hold the picked crop. The guy said the same man shows up with a crew every year and they have picked the valley for the past 30 years. I wonder how long it takes them as the valley is huge. Pretty amazing to see that much fruit all at one time.

Columbia River Gorge

To get to the train, we drove up the Columbia River Gorge for about 50 miles. The gorge is some of the most amazing scenery we have seen anywhere.  The river is wide and surrounded by rock cliffs on both sides. Because of all the dams on the Columbia, it is supposedly much tamer than in its distant past but it still seems pretty powerful today. It is fed from most of the rivers west of the Rockies in both the US and Canada. The picture doesn't really do justice to the vastness and beauty of the river.

Multnomah Falls

We stopped at a couple of points along the Columbia, including at Multnomah Falls. Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon and one of the largest in the US. It is very beautiful but was a little hard to get to today. It was 85 degrees and also on the weekend, so it seemed that everyone from Portland was out sightseeing and enjoying the river area and the several falls that are in this area. We persisted and finally found a parking spot and got our view.