Around Portland, Oregon

We arrived in Portland on the Saturday so had a free day to explore. We booked a trip to see some of the sights and waterfalls and it turned out we were the only ones on it so got to ask lots of questions. 

The first stop was a lookout over the river.

We got to see Vista Point rest stop at Crown Point on the Columbia River Gorge. (Washington State is on the other side of the river.) It was built as a memorial to the early Oregon pioneers, and is the fanciest rest stop I have ever seen.

View down river at Vista Point

Up river.

Vista Point.

Ceiling inside. 

Obviously a Trump supporter. (He had a sicker too.)

After this, we headed to a group of waterfalls along the historic highway. The first was Latourell falls.

Latourell Falls.

The largest waterfall was the one I wanted to see the most, Multnomah Falls. I have seen photos of it for years. According to Native law, it was created to win the heart of a young princess who wanted a hidden place to bathe.

It is the tallest waterfall in Oregon, over 2 levels with Benson Bridge spanning the middle. (The bridge was named after Simon Benson, a prominent business man who gave the waterfall to the city of Portland and was did a lot for the city in general.)

On the bridge

First tier

Looking down over the second tier.

We were really glad we were there in the Winter. We saw some photos of it int he summer and we wouldn't have been able to get close. But on a semi-raining day (typical of Oregon and Washington state) in winter, there weren't too many people around, though the car park was still full.

The next stop was Horse Tail falls. And there is another one above called Pony tail falls. You can't see it from there, but we did get a glimpse from the road later on.

Horse Tail falls.

We headed down to the river and around some of the docking areas. At one of the areas, there were a lot of brass statues. I really want one like this in my garden when I get one.

The weather mostly held off and only rained when we were in the car. But the cloud cover was quite dramatic. 

The last stop was at the hydro-electric dam. It was an odd stop but interesting. We went into and saw how they built it and how they make sure the fish can still get up and down the river. 

We saw some pretty big fish. They have a lot of salmon around the around and we stopped by a local fish shop owned by a native American family where they caught and smoked their own fish. It was amazing and I brought some which become my breakfast for the next few days.
We got dropped back off at the hotel in time to head to a bar to catch the Super Bowl.