Enjoying the "Hood"

Wednesday’s drive was uneventful. There was some very interesting terrain in the form of a lot of volcanic features that turned into mini grand canyons with rivers at the bottom. It was fairly arid but there were lots of wild flowers blooming. After navigating a couple of the canyons we came up into the flats, made a westerly turn and there was Mount Hood in all of its glory.

Keep in mind that we were paralleling the Cascade Range with its many snow topped volcanoes all day but it was very obvious which one was the 11,000+ foot behemoth that we had come to see. As we started up out of the high desert into the forest we, began to realize a couple of things. First….no cell phone signal (thank goodness I had programmed the navigation in the truck) but also the fact that the area was ridiculously green and unspoiled. We had a little concern about the campground given the fact that it is a National Forest Service RV only campground. Something that neither one of us had heard of before. All of the National Forest Service Campgrounds that we knew about were dry camping. In other words, no services. Well…this place is magnificent. Enormous, densely packed fir trees with a few other varieties mixed in and a multitude of bushes and wild flowers. The sites are very large and spaced apart…there are only 8 of them at any rate so we feel like we are here by ourselves.

No other campers are visible from our site. We spent the evening sitting outside by the campfire, just relaxing and enjoying our time together.
Thursday we headed off to Mount Hood. We weren’t really sure what to expect. When I did my research I found very little about the area. We went up to Timberline Lodge which is a historic lodge that is Mount Hoods version of the Awahanee in Yosemite. It was beautiful, with the mountain looming up behind it. They were still skiing there. A guy in the gift shop and one of the hotel clerks gave us some ideas of things that we might do. One was Trillium Lake. We were very glad that we decided to go there. It was a couple of miles off of the beaten path but the lake was stunning and the reflection of Mount Hood was unsurpassed. We hiked a bit lugging all of my stuff looking for the best vantage point to take advantage of the reflection. I was very thankful for my trusty Sherpa (Scott) for indulging me.

The next spot that we went in search of was a Pioneer Woman’s Grave. As it turn out the Oregon Trail skirted Mount Hood. In the 1930’s they were building the first road through the area right along the original “Trail” and found the grave of a woman who had been buried in the box made from a wagon. They reburied her and marked her grave as an unknown Pioneer Woman. Driving the area we really realized the hardship that they must have endured in covered wagons through this extremely rugged country. I had read on one photography blog that if we continued down this forest service road from the grave site a couple more miles there would be a great view of the mountain. The view did not disappoint. Because this road followed the Oregon Trail we realized that many pioneers saw this majestic mountain from the very same spot and realized that their journey was nearly over. It had to be quite emotional for them. It was certainly an “Oh, Wow!!!” moment for us. We realize how much we enjoy the ‘off the beaten path” sights

such as this that only a handful of more adventurous types will get to experience.
After returning to the highway we stopped for a snack and headed down the Mountain toward Hood River. It has been close to 20 years since we were there last and boy had the town grown. Known for being on the Columbia River Gorge, Windsurfing and Microbrews it is an interesting place. Last time we were there we went to the Full Sail Brewery which is now huge and distributes nationally. We decided to go to the new and much smaller Double Mountain Brewery for a Pint and a Bite. Great food, beer and atmosphere.

After fueling up for $2.53 a gallon for diesel….full service…they don’t let you pump, fully satisfied we headed back to our campsite for a repeat of last evenings relaxing campfire. Friday we head to Benton City, Washington for a couple of days. Scott hopes to play some golf at one of their 6 golf courses. Me, I want to catch up on the blog and some photos. We can’t believe that we have been gone a week already. So many more adventures to come. Living the Dream!!!

Addendum: We went a few days without WiFi so just catching up. I would like to say that we had an uneventful drive from Mount Hood to Benton City Washington but about an hour into the drive we took a rock in the windshield. We now have a quarter sized divot in the vicinity of the rear view mirror. At least its not in our field of vision. We will look into having it fixed in Yakima in a few days. The good new is, I finally got our new satellite dish working so that we have TV for the first time of the trip. Not a huge deal but I wanted to make sure that it worked after spending the money on the purchase and installation. The WiFi was out at the RV park so we are enjoying a Beer at a local brewery with a pulled pork quesadilla from the food truck outside. What sacrifices we must make for internet. Living the dream!