The Gorge Will Never Be the Same

A week ago, my husband and I made the drive across Oregon from rural to urban...to spend a few days with our first--and only--grandchild, ginger-haired Ava Maeve.  She's not quite 5 months old, so has changed so much since we last saw her in early July.  The drive takes nearly 5 hours, if we make our obligatory stop at The Dalles.

A little more than halfway, the Columbia Gorge begins...one of the most beautiful "wild" areas of Oregon, home to hundreds of miles of hiking trails up forested mountains, and home to 77 waterfalls, the most famous is Multnomah Falls.  Today, the forested area of the Gorge is on fire, the victim of a teenager with fireworks.  Things will NEVER be the same again in the Gorge. Generally, I don't do a lot of photography from the car, and we didn't stop because the Gorge area was full of Labor Day visitors.  However, I actually took a photo right at the exit to Cascade Locks, a small town on the river, which has now been evacuated because of the fire.

View of the burning Columbia River Gorge from Washington side of the Columbia River
(dylan taylor photo)

These photos are just "typical" sights along I-84 to and from...  some sights will never be the same after this fire.

Three modes of transportation so important to the state: a tug, a train, and trucks.

View west into the smoke caused by multiple wild fires in the state. 

Railroad bridge across the Columbia from Oregon to Washington

Smoke illustrates the layers of the landscape in the Gorge. 

Exit to Cascade Locks, riverside town forced to evacuate by the Eagle Creek Fire

Young Bighorn Sheep rams grazing on the dry terrain along I-84. This

       sighting was on the return to Northeastern Oregon. 

Wind turbines are common in this part of Oregon and across the river in Washington.

It might be an interstate, but the combines have to get from one harvesting area to another!

A famous tree farm near Boardman has been reduced to a few small stands of trees, making way

for more productive crops .