Bridal Veil Falls

We were tired, and had seen enough waterfalls. They were all starting to look alike. The Bridal Veil Falls were the last for the day.

Wahkeena Falls

These are the Wahkeena Falls, a mere 242 feet.

Multnomah Falls

The Multnomah Falls are actually two separate falls. The upper falls are 542 feet, and the lower falls are 69 feet. The second picture is only of the upper falls, taken from the bridge you see in the first picture.

Horsetail Falls

Along the drive west to Portland along the south bank of the Columbia River there are several waterfalls that are very easy to see. This is Horsetail Falls, located right next to the road. It is 178 feet tall.

Views of the Columbia River

Once we had found the Columbia River, we travelled west along its south bank until we got to Portland. Along the way we had some good views from the sometimes very high bluffs.

The first picture was taken from Rowena Crest, looking east. The second picture was taken from a roadside pullout closer to Portland, looking west.

Leaving Bend

We left Bend by driving North to The Dalles (how many towns can you think of that use the word "The" in the name?) on the Columbia River.

As we left, we noticed that the mountains to the west had gotten some good snow overnight. Today was nice and sunny, so you could actually see a few miles, and thus see the snow covered mountains.

Further north, the drive was through rolling farm land that is typical of eastern Oregon. Trees were nearly absent. At this road side pullout we were lucky enough to find some good bones so that my pictures had a good desert feel to them.

McMenamins

While in Bend, we stayed at this cool hotel run by McMenamins. They are a bar/restaurant chain. They brew their own beers. They host regional band tours. And they also turn old buildings into hotels. Such was the case in Bend. We stayed at the Old St. Francis School.

I was thinking this was going to be cheesy. I was quite wrong. The pictures are our room. Each room was named after someone who was associated with the school somehow (ours was The Hoaglands or something...two sisters who attended the school before it became the "old" school and was turned into a bar/hotel). It was a very neat place to stay.

[edit 06.30.07: Just noticed that the title of this post was misspelled :-)]

Slow Day in Bend

So, with our bird watching venture a bust, we ended up just laying low today. There was some exploring of Bend. There was some window shopping. There was some very light sleet and snow. There was some napping. There were very few pictures.

Middle of Nowhere

We ventured out in search of a bird watching spot that we had read about south of Bend. It is located in a small campground in the middle of Deschutes National Forest. The trip there, and our eventual discovery of the campground, have confirmed that the alternative name for this place was "The Middle of Nowhere".

Next to the campground was a park maintenance area that had been closed. If you read the description of the campground on the park web site, you will see that it is likely to be discontinued. I am thinking that might have already happened.

We did see some signs of life. There was a tent on the left side of the dirt road (opposite side from the camp ground) with lots of trash laying around it, but no sign of a human (other than the tent). In the camp ground itself there was a tent pitched next to a couple of cars (an old white van and some variety of Subaru, also old...both were full of junk). I did not stop to converse, but it had the look of a permanent residence for someone. And there was this car by the side of the road. I made a mental note to not dilly dally because it appeared likely that we would be attacked by vagabonds if we gave them any opportunity.

So, we found the campground, but there was no sign of the bird watching blinds described by our source material. I was too freaked out by the squatters to ask them for guidance. But it was a pretty place.

McKenzie Pass

The drive to Bend crossed over McKenzie Pass. This scenic drive would have been interesting just because you pass through a lava field (from an eruption about 1500 years ago), but we timed it perfectly so that we would get caught in the beginning of a snow storm. It was very cold, very windy and the snow was just starting to fall. The snow was nothing but interesting to us as we were headed down the mountain, but elevations over 5000 feet ended up getting several inches of snow.

Proxy Falls

The third waterfall stop was actually two different falls: Lower Proxy Falls and Upper Proxy Falls. A short circuit hike will take you past each.

The third picture is of the pool that the Upper Proxy Falls drains into. Notice anything weird? The picture may not make it easy to tell, but the water flowing in on the right side never flows out of the pool. It must "drain" straight down into the volcanic rock. My first theory was that someone had installed a submerged pump that pushed the water back to the top, to tumble back down again. But I found no evidence of a pump or pipes, so I came up with that other, less interesting, theory.

Sahalie and Koosah Falls

On the drive to Bend, we drove through the Cascades. The drive itself was very scenic, but we also stopped to check out some waterfalls that were fairly easy to get to. The Sahalie and Koosah Falls were within a half a mile of each other, both on the McKenzie River. The first are the Sahalie Falls. The second are the Koosah Falls.

Bridges of Cottage Grove

Just south of Eugene Oregon, there is a little town called Cottage Grove. One of its attractions is a self guided tour of covered bridges in the vicinity. Before getting on the road to Bend, we took some time to go see a few of these bridges. I liked this picture because of the reflection of the bridge in the water.

Elk Herd

After we started heading inland, we came across this herd of Elk that were grazing on Bureau of Land Management property near Reedsport. I realized that I had not taken any pictures this trip of something with hooves, so I had to stop and snap a photo.

Giant Dunes

How could something so large be so hard to find?

One of the last things that Tammy and I planned to do on the Oregon coast before heading inland was to explore some piece of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The travel book we had purchased described one hike in particular that we wanted to try. Not too long, but enough to get us out into the dunes in an area that was not plagued by dune buggies. So we dutifully followed the directions in the book. This took us down route 101 where we...did not see the landmark.

We knew there were dunes just beyond the trees that the road ran through. We could sometimes see the giant piles of sand. But we could not seem to find the trail that our book described.

After three trips up and down the same 10 mile stretch of route 101, we finally stumbled across the trailhead...in a different place and with a different name than what the book had printed. Sheesh.

This Is Disturbing

While on Cape Perpetua, another visitor noticed my American Birding Association gear and we started talking birds. They ended up giving me directions to Heceta Beach where I spied a few birds that I had never seen before. This bird, however, caught my eye because he is in a very bad way and there is not much that can be done about it.

While I was at this park, a lady parked nearby and proceeded to do two things that annoyed the heck out of me. First, she fed the birds bread by hand. Second, she then took her two dogs for a walk unleashed.

Why am I so bent out of shape? Feeding birds by hand may seem cool and nice and gentle, but what you are really doing is training the birds to associate humans with very easy food (and usually food that it not healthy for the birds, although they do not know that). When I got out of the car at this park, several birds immediately flew over and walked around behind me. Some were so close that I could not take their picture with my 100mm lens. They were obviously not very afraid of me.

Back to this lady. After she fed the birds (which caused the bird I was watching in my scope, a species I had never seen before in my life, to fly over to her for a quick meal of bread) she unleashed her dogs and took a walk along the shore. Birds fly in for food, and then fly away as dogs chase them.

The bird in this picture was more than likely not afraid of humans, came nearby and decided that the thing flying out from the human was just another piece of easy food. He had no idea that it had a hook in it and was attached to a fishing line. The line has been cut, but the hook remains. Who knows how long he has been this way? I have a feeling that his beak cannot open enough for him to feed and he will eventually starve to death.

Sea Lion Cave

Sea Lion Cave is pure tourist attraction. You come across it in the middle of nowhere as you drive south on route 101. Beneath the gift shop, they have built an elevator that takes you something like 200 feet down to a museum and platform that has a view into a sea cave on the Oregon coast. It is called Sea Lion Cave for obvious reasons: Sea Lions like to hang out there.

Tidepool

If you arrive at Cape Perpetua when the tide is low, you can explore their Marine Garden. What this means is that you can climb out on the coastal rocks far enough to see the things that are stuck in tide pools when the tide is out, but not actually be in the water yourself. The trick to this is that you need to watch your step so that you do not step on anything living, and watch the surf so that you do not get clobbered by a wave (which would probably be very life threatening if you got knocked into the ocean).

Inching Along

This little guy was on a fence at the top of Cape Perpetua. It seemed like he might be in a hurry.

Views from Cape Perpetua

Cape Perpetua is the highest point along the Oregon Coast. The first picture made me very nervous. Just a couple more steps forward and I would be wishing I could fly. The second photo is an attempt to capture the light filtering through the vegetation on the cape.