This is where I live

Living in a National Scenic Area has its drawbacks… .  But here are the positives!!

This is the Columbia River Gorge looking east, upriver with the Vista House at Crown Point on the right. The state of Washington is on the left.  This picture is taken from Chanticleer Point, where my Mom worked in a restaurant as a teen.  They were famous for fried chicken and all the fixin’s.  Get this, for dessert they served a square of clabbered milk with a dollop of berry jam on top.  The girls that worked there, had to pick the berries and make all the jam for the restaurant.   I still cook in a large Griswold cast iron skillet from that restaurant.  (she never told me how it ended up at our house!)  The restaurant burned during the Depression.  The other name of this viewpoint is Necker’s Rock.  I don’t think I need to explain that one.  The official name is the Portland Women’s Forum State Park.  Kind of boring, don’t you think?  Especially for a place that doesn’t look too different from when Lewis and Clark traveled through here.

This is the Vista House, built as a “comfort station” in 1917 for travelers along the Columbia River Highway.  It features a panoramic view, and a stunning interior of brass, marble, mahogany and elegant plaster work.  If it sounds like I’m a tour guide, I was.  I worked here and at the waterfalls as a naturalist for the Forest Service.  We dispensed answers to all the questions in the world, but the most asked were, “Where’s the restroom? and “What time to you shut off the water to the falls?”  Our name for the endless streams of litter strewing tourists – Swinus americanus.  There are probably hundreds of photos of me in Japan, languishing in boxes, taken with me wearing my Forest Ranger get-up!  I wish it still fit… .

Mt Hood from Larch Mountain.
This view is looking into Portland’s famous Bull Run Watershed.

 

Looking west, the Columbia River Gorge and Portland beneath the clouds.

I live on the dead end road that leads to this viewpoint on Larch Mountain.  This headworks of all the waterfalls start up here in the highlands.  Most days in the summer, our farm is above the clouds like this photo shows.  So while we get many cloudy days, and a high amount of rainfall – quite a few of days that Portland is socked in, we are basking in the sun.

Multnomah Falls, 620 ft.

Our farm lies just southwest of these waterfalls.  This is the tallest, but there are at least 8 major falls, with miles of inter-connected hiking trails at each stop. 

 

Oneonta Gorge

If you hike back into this gorge, wading through the chilling creek, sometimes up to your chin, you will be rewarded with this…

Oneonta Falls

Situated on the south side of the Columbia River, these cool, north facing slopes are home to very rare and protected plants. 
Even driving past these sights every day, I have never tired of the views, I love this place! 

All these photos were harvested from the internet.