Stop 32: Cascade Locks, OR (Columbia River Gorge)

The trip up the Columbia River Gorge was beautiful, even in the fog and rain. The funny thing is that, in the weather reports that we've seen while we've been here, the rest of the area has cleared up. There's just the one pocket of rain sitting on the Gorge. It finally stopped at about noon on our 2nd day.

The hills above our campground.

More hills above our campground.

Beautiful trees over our campground.

We started our only full day here by crossing the Bridge of the Gods and driving the few miles up to Stevenson, WA.

Sternwheeler on the Columbia (from a pier in Stevenson)..

More from the pier in Stevenson (the Bridge of the Gods is in the distance).

The Bridge of the Gods (from the pier in Stevenson).

The view upriver from the pier.

Before leaving Stevenson, we visited the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center/Museum.

While we were there, they started up and demonstrated this Corliss Engine. It, and others like it, once powered entire lumber mills and other types of factories.

 After lunch, we headed for the Bonneville Dam area which included an amazing fish hatchery, fish ladder and lock.

This was the only hatchery that we've ever seen that included sturgeon. These were just babies at 3'. Sturgeon aren't keepers until they hit 48".

This sturgeon, name Henry, is 10' long and 70 years old. Sturgeon can live to 100.

Henry and a couple of his rainbow trout friends.

Some very large (18-24") rainbow trout.

 We lucked out with the lock. Some barges had just entered so we got to watch the entire process.

The closed downstream gate.

2 barges full of wood chips, waiting for the water level to drop so they can continue downstream.

A 3rd barge full of logs and the tugboat that was controlling all 3 barges.

The upstream gate, starting to close.

The upstream gate, closed.

Kristen watching the water level drop.

Where did the barge go?

Continuing to drop.

The bridge just downstream from the lock is a pivot drawbridge. Here it is starting to open.

The water is down and the downstream gate is starting to open.

The downstream gate is almost all the way open.

And here go the barges.

Bon voyage!

The Bonneville Dam spillways.

The Bonneville Dam fish ladder. We could see a lot of salmon moving upstream but they were impossible to photograph.

At the top of the ladder, the Salmon are forced into a narrow shoot so that they could be counted. We saw very few Salmon at the windows that are open to the public but we did see a fine collection of lamprey eels.

The door was ajar to the room where the official counter sits (apparently this is the tightest spot and forces the salmon up against the glass). I snapped this picture through the door.

Tomorrow, we're off to Pendleton, OR.

-JC-