Snow Day!

Anton took the scouts snow camping at White River, near Mt. Hood. They made snow caves to sleep in and the next day they went sledding. We drove up to meet them. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and not very cold.

 

 

 

 

First we had to explore one of the snow caves they used. Magnus loved it. It was the right height for him. We ate some lunch and headed up the valley to the sledding hill.

We found Anton and his group in the bowl shaped area to the left:

Here Dana was able to take Magnus down twice. Magnus had a lot of fun.

Anton at the top of the hill and participating in a snowball fight:

Ruth has a go:

Aaron Sahim attempting a jump:  

Magnus chilling in the snow. He really liked wearing my ski goggles.

It was a good day in the snow at Mt. Hood.

Destination: Starvation

Starvation Creek was the destination for a new Gorge outing. This was somewhere we had never gone. The name comes from 1884, when a train got stuck in the snow for several weeks before getting out. Though no one starved, stories of the incident made the name stick.

Starvation Creek Falls was our first stop. It is a very short walk from the parking lot. It was very cool to see and there were a lot of neat rocks and trees to look at as well. Dana was able to climb to a closer vantage point.

 

 

 

 

Starting down the Starvation Loop Trail leads you to three smaller waterfalls and some great views.

Cabin Creek Falls is first. This one has a neat little cave behind it you can climb up to.

Along the trail we spotted this large mound of dirt and made jokes about the giant ants that would come out and get us. Upon closer inspection we found that it really was a very large anthill. We put a normal sized Magnus in for scale (he was not carried away by the ants):

Hole-in-the-Wall Falls was next. Back when the original highway ran closer to the cliffs Warren Falls would spray out on to the road and cause problems. Engineers had the idea that instead of moving the road they would move the waterfall. So they blasted a new course through the cliff-face, hence the name change. We really liked this waterfall. It was very peaceful there and had a nice area to sit for a while.

This is where the original falls flowed: 

Lancaster Falls was third. Because of how it is situated you can only see the bottom up close. The whole thing is about 231 ft. tall. But is still fun to see.

Now we break for some fun things along the trail:

The return trail took us up on to the tops of some cliffs with some very nice views. Here Magnus contemplates how awesome nature is:

Higher up the trail:

And more views. At one point we could actually see our car. For this photo I told Magnus to smile, instead he made this face.

Starvation Creek is only accessible from one side of the freeway, so you have to head farther down in order to turn back home. So, we went into Hood River and visited Wah Gwin Gwin Falls, which is situated behind the Columbia River Gorge Hotel.

Some dinner ended our day in the Gorge and we got Ruth home in time to get to Mutual.

An Impromptu Gorge Visit

Good weather gave us a great reason to visit the Gorge after work. Without a specific destination we headed to the Oregon side of the river. We took in the view at Women’s Forum and Crown Point. The sky was nice and clear, but we did see a large storm to the north. We were thankful it did not head our way.

Next, we stopped at Latourell Falls. Magnus woke up from his nap and wanted to go see the “fffshh wader.”

A very happy place:

Ruth took this cool picture of the bridge we waited on for some construction.

At Wahkeena Falls, we decided to do the short hike up.

Magnus got to ride most of the way up.

We are thankful for beautiful things to go see.

After the hike, Magnus threw some rocks in the creek, something he enjoys very much.