That was a full day!

Had a great sleep boondocking in the forest. It's not that easy to find decent free camping in the Columbia Gorge... it's simply too popular of a place, so there are a lot of "no overnight parking" signs around. You have to go up into the hills on Forest Service Roads, and we're just not comfortable doing that given how much rain there has been.

The rain stopped around 9:00am, and we set off looking for the first waterfall of the day. There are lots of waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge Scenic Area!

First stop was only a few miles down the road. We were heading east at this point, on the gorge's northern highway in Washington.

Sherman, waiting patiently.

Ruth, on the trail to Sweeney Falls.

We stopped at Sweeney Falls, but the trail was very washed out, and it was steep. We decided there were a lot of other falls to see without risking a broken leg or a mudslide! Too bad, because we could even see the falls, and they weren't that far away. But, better to err on the side of caution this time.

Next stop was Dog Creek Falls.

Huh? What's that blue color in the sky? 

Haven't seen that in quite a few days!

Things are clearing up nicely!

Me, at Dog Creek Falls.

As much as we wanted to carry on east to see more of the gorge, this was just a side trip. We're actually feeling a bit rushed already, knowing that we have to average 100 miles (160 kms) a day for the next 28 days. We know that we will make up for it with some longer driving days later in the month, but we don't want to leave too much driving until the end.

Tunnels.

Scenery along the way.

More scenery.

So we crossed the Columbia River to the Oregon side, and saw the highlights there while heading west, mostly on the I-84 that runs on that side of the river.

The cost for Sherman to cross the toll bridge was $6 USD ($8 CAD). There is a sign at the entrance to the bridge saying that each lane is only 9 ft wide, so you have to be really careful passing larger vehicles. Sherman is 8 ft wide, plus his mirrors stick out from there. 

Tight squeeze!

But that's not all... it was really windy. 

There was a strong easterly cross wind. I had to really hang on to Sherman!

Clear sailing... not much more traffic.

Almost at Hood River.

The town of Hood River, Oregon (pop 7,700) has a nice new free RV dump station and potable water fill at their sewer treatment plant. (GPS 45.713531, -121.519620). So we took a little detour over there to take advantage of the free dump and fill.

Then, headed west on the I-84. 

You can see how windy it was!

But at least the sun is shining! :-)

We tried to take the old historical highway 30... but there was a big forest fire in this area last September, and the road is still closed. They are working on it, and had hoped to have it open by now, but it's still not ready. So we were stuck taking the Interstate until we got to the turn off to Crown Point House.

But before that, we stopped at the spectacular Multnomah Falls.

That's a high waterfall!

We walked up to the bridge.

Looking down from the bridge.

Then we carried on to the old highway 30, but we had to backtrack a bit to get to the Crown Point House.

Nice view from Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint.

Wow.. that's a mouth full.

Would have loved to have camped there for the night, but unfortunately it's day use only.

View looking east.

You can see the Crown Point House on the cliff.

Another mile and a half and we were there!

Crown Point House.

Looking west.

Looking east.

We wanted to backtrack just a little further west, but Sherman's fuel tank was getting low... and there were some steep hills to climb. Which he could have done, but steep hills on an empty tank aren't a good idea!

So we headed towards Portland where I had scoped out a cheap fuel stop on gasbuddy.com .

Filled up at $3.00 a gallon USD ($1.05 CAD per liter) which is pretty great when every other station in the area was 10% to 20% higher.

And then, we had to make our way through Portland.

Now, at first glance you'd think that Portland, Oregon isn't a very big city. But the greater Portland area is now 2.3 million people!

So, there was some Friday afternoon rush hour traffic to deal with, but we still made it to our planned destination before dark.

We are at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. But, we were only here to park for the night. I had read that they allow RV's to park for free in their huge parking lot. And, they have lots of cool stuff to see without needing to pay the $27 USD ($36.00 CAD) per person adult admission fee.

For example...

Here's where Sherman is parked for the night.

Sherman wishes he could fly too!

We will wander around and take some more photos this morning before we head out.

Yesterday's convoluted drive, 141 miles (226 kms).

Today, we're headed back to the coast.

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