Post 9 Chasing Waterfalls (Pacific Northwest)

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Sept 18-26

 The first thing we did when we re-entered the states was to fill up the van with gas.  $4.89/gallon! Ouch!

We were up early to get to the ferry and skipped breakfast. When we landed in Port Townsend, we looked for a good cup of coffee. We found a nice little coffee shop overlooking the water and ate our breakfast accompanied by our seagull friend.


We stocked up on food for the week and then made our way to our friend Lynda’s home.  Lynda was the minister of our church and retired to Washington a few years ago.  She lives in a small community on the eastern shore of the Olympic Peninsula.  We spent a few days in her family’s yurt. She lives in a trailer on the same property.



The next day, we went to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center for a stamp and a sticker in our passport book.

Mt Olympus is one of several volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest’s Cascade range.  Others include Mt Rainier, Mt St Helen’s and Mt Hood.  Options at the national park included driving the scenic mountain byway but, after 3 weeks on scary high mountain roads and vistas, Anne’s body and brain needed a break.  We decided to do some hiking to some of the waterfalls in the park instead.  In fact, we spent this entire week chasing waterfalls.





Over the next 2 days, Lynda showed us around the eastern peninsula, introduced us to some of her friends and brought us to a small-town harvest festival.  There was a wildfire burning in the park on the other side of the peninsula, and the view on the east coast was very hazy from the smoke.




After 3 days on the peninsula, we moved on to Mt Rainier National Park, southeast of Seattle.  Here, too, we stopped into the visitor center (oy…up a scary mountain road) and hiked to a waterfall.  The weather was beautiful and it was busy at the park.





The next day, on our way to Oregon, we made a stop at the Mt St Helens Visitor Center. This is a museum with scientific displays about the eruption in 1980.  There was information about how they were monitoring the volcano back then and now, safety issues that were in place and the aftermath of the explosion. 


Next stop, the Columbia River Gorge, on the border of Washington and Oregon, and home to a series of magnificent waterfalls. 

On our way, we passed through Portland, where there is another Dambo troll, so we took some time to find him.  His name is Ole Bolle.  He’s lifting the roof of a cottage, thinking it’s a cookie jar filled with cookies!






The Columbia River is HUGE, averaging 1.5 miles wide. Along the steep cliffs on the south side of the river, 100-200 foot waterfalls tumble over the cliffs and run to the river below.  Eight of the waterfalls are only 1-2 miles apart.  We stopped at all of them and hiked to the top or the bottom.  They were amazing!












Next stop- Bend, OR.

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