Another Round Trip Across Oregon

Our only granddaughter turned 1 on April 10, so we made the trek to the "west side" again.  On the way back, we drove a portion of the Historic Columbia River Highway, always my favorite. Before we took that old highway at Mosier, we sailed past Multnomah Falls, but it was packed on a Monday, so I didn't want to stop.  Beautiful drive both ways...we just wish Hillsboro could be closer.

The ubiquitous wind towers lining the Washington horizon above the Columbia River

 Bighorn rams photographed at 70 mph from the car

 Portland has beautiful flowering trees, many of which line the streets.

 Magnolias were starting to bloom in Hillsboro

 Fascinating variety of growth on a tree limb

 Metal creature on Main Street in Hillsboro

 A most interesting combination of tenants

 Multnomah Falls, plunging from a mountain charred by the devastating Eagle Creek Fire of 2017

 View of Columbia upriver and I-84 East from Rowena Crest Overlook

 The famed Rowena Crest horseshoe highway

 Bighorn rams bedded down in the afternoon; we actually backed up on the freeway for this shot!

 Bighorn ewes look really rough this time of year.

The Boardman tree farm, now in small sections since the land was sold for other agricultural use.

That Sky!

I really don't have a series of photos for a blog post yet, but this image is one I took on our way back up the Columbia Gorge last weekend (after another trip to do some "grandbaby duty" in Hillsboro while baby's daddy/our son was in NYC for work and mama could use some back-up). The weather was "iffy" but the clouds were spectacular.  This was taken through the windshield from the passenger side of the car...wind towers on the Washington side of the Columbia River, dwarfed by that immense cloud-filled sky.

Spring also means Animals...

The trip to SE Portland is nearly 400 miles, out of the mountains, across the flatland "desert" between the mountains and the Columbia Gorge.  The Gorge itself is always beautiful, but the high point for my husband and me is always the search for views of the Bighorn sheep between Blalock and Philippi Canyons and the John Day River.  Several summers ago, groups of rams were almost always right next to the freeway and easy to photograph. Then that seemed to change, but we didn't give up looking. Two weeks ago, we were able to stop three times--three times where there was enough space to pull off the highway. I was within 50 yards of the animals.   The rams are ratty looking because they still have winter coats, and it was a rough winter in the Columbia Gorge.  Hopefully, they will be down low again in a month or so.