When we arrived at Astoria yesterday, the evening had already set in so didn’t pay very much attention to the view outside our motel window.
This photo was taken from our room balcony. It kind of blew us away when we pulled the curtains back at 7.00am in the morning. The bridge in the background is called the Astoria-Megler Bridge and you are only seeing about a third of it. It is the longest continual truss bridge in North America.
The bridge is 6.5 kilometers in length and crosses over the mighty Columbia River. We crossed the bridge from the northern side on our way into Astoria. We took the opportunity this morning to have a wander around the marina and enjoy the gorgeous weather. We are truly lucking out with this weather – thank you to the weather gods.
Our travels today were all about driving up the Columbia River on the south bank taking B roads and staying off the major highways. We did divert briefly to drive through Portland so we could have a glimpse of the city skyline. Around the early 1950’s, Eisenhower proposed an interstate highway system in a grid like pattern to cover the country and connect it altogether. That is nearly 75 years and there is obvious evidence on our travels today that it is ageing infrastructure and not in a good way. All the bridges crossing the Columbia River, and there are very, very many of them, are all made of steel and not looking so good. The concrete in the road system is also in a bad state. There have been several instances in the recent past where road and river bridges have collapsed due to poor maintenance. This must be a huge headache for the Americans as the expense for repair and replacement is going to be astronomical.
Like so many port cities (eg Portland, Vancouver, San Fran, LA) on the west coast, there is a huge drug problem with the associated homelessness that comes with it. The drugs come in from China and are heavily laced with Fentanyl which makes them highly addictive. Portland is receiving very bad press at present over the number of people affected by addiction and resultant social problems. For those of you who have been to downtown east side Vancouver, the same issues are mirrored there.
Once we got through Portland and the outlying suburbs, we started getting into the Columbian River Gorge area. It is not a tight gorge but it is very expansive.
We kept getting glimpses of Mount St Helens throughout our drive today and finally got the chance to get a reasonable picture of it. At one angle, we did briefly see where the north side of the volcano had blown out. It is 43 years since the eruption and doing a bit of research tonight, (won’t inflict all the details on you) we now have a much greater appreciation of the destruction that it caused. Ash actually went as far as Calgary, and it took two weeks for the ash cloud to circumnavigate the globe.
These are the Multnomah Falls which are the third tallest waterfalls in America after Yosemite and Niagara and most visited natural site in Oregon – there you go, a bit of trivia.
Today was American Thanksgiving and for some unknown reason the facilities were closed at the bottom of the falls yet the crowds were pretty overwhelming.
Fraser is the guy in blue with his arms up. Had to laugh, though not a laughing matter, but they did request on a sign walking up to the falls to please leave your firearms in your vehicle – yeap, you know where you are when you see that kind of signage.
Poor old Toque is still struggling and not very animated and being day three we are getting very concerned. If she doesn’t eat tonight, it will be a trip to the vet. Fingers crossed we have better news about her tomorrow.
We put our weary heads to bed in a place called Hood River.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 