One Brief Shining Moment

 the sun was shining and we went to Dalles Mt. Ranch in Washington.  map

This 3200 acre former ranch is now a state park and preserve.  There is a display of old farm machinery including this old grader.  You drive a few miles up a primitive road to get to the park, and if you care about the paint job on your citified car, you may not want to drive up this road.  Oh, and there are ticks and rattlesnakes here, too, but the views are worth the risk!

Driving up toward the preserve, you pass rocky canyons filled with desert parsley and rushing water.

Mr. Thornsby admires Mt. Hood

 Balsam root is common here in the open grassland habitat and was used as a medicinal plant in the past.

Because there are some very rare plants here,
 there are a lot of restrictions in the use of the upper part of the park.  Of course, Mr. Thornsby reminds us that he is neither a horse nor a pet.











 We did not see any of the rare plants, but we did not look too hard.  We did see some colorful lichens on the rocks (basalt).

 Bare-stem desert parsley is abundant here.  The young leaves taste like celery and were/are used as food by native people in the area according to Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Pojar and MacKinnon (known as Pojar to us naturalists).

Your lives or your lupines!

An entire field of death camas which we did not eat

We went back to White Salmon for lunch

I had a burger almost as good as homemade at Everybody's Brewpub

Garden in the Gorge

 A sunny day today in Troutdale at the West end of the Gorge.  One of Troutdale's best features is McMenamin's Edgefield, the former county poor farm; now a hotel, restaurant, and pub complex, site of outdoor concerts in the summer and general merry making all year round.
(on Halsey Blvd near 238th)

The Little Red Shed is one of the mini-bars on the property

 Edgefield has its own vegetable garden, where this purple broccoli is growing and where the giant raised bed shown below is located.

Mr. Thornsby admires the raised bed with baby beets in it

 Much of the landscaping includes native plants such as this bracken fern just emerging.

The Distillery is located next to the start of the golf course

Edgefield is a favorite spot of unicorns.  What's up with the unicorn?  Mr. Thornsby is the mascot of a nearby Natural Resources Academy (known as the NRA) and was named by Temo Medina in the following award winning 55-word limited essay:

"Mr. Thornsby is my unicorn - he hates everyone except for me and the NRA.  He eats anything with thorns.  He's the master of all unicorns.  He does everyone's 90 hour project.  When you need to stay on campus he flips your car over.  His name is Mr. because he's like a teacher but cooler."

'nuff said.

Local Color

We've taken a break from Gorge hikes to spend a weekend tearing up the agility ring with Arrow

and going to Seaside for a low tide to dig up some fine razor clams.

 It is still quite soggy here in the Western Gorge - much of my backyard looks like this -

But a host of daffodils are blooming

as well as the red-flowering currents

And a warbler adds some color to a cloudy April

Wet Day at Wahclella

Despite the wet, we went out to Wahclella Falls trail, a short but scenic hike - 4th out of 25 hikes on the list.  Located at exit 40 on I-84 East (the Bonneville Dam exit).

The hike takes you beside Tanner Creek which flows into the Columbia River.  Not far from the mouth of the creek is this dam, where there is a water intake for the hatchery at Bonneville Dam.  My anonymous partner walks Pixel and Arrow up the trail.


 

Of course there are wildflowers here

 and waterfalls within reach

The base of Wahclella Falls

Arrow wants us to admire his profile, too

After the walk, we found a record of Woody Guthrie's at . . .

. . . the Pacific Crest Pub in Cascade Locks

 They have a hearty pizza and hamburger menu at the pub which is also a hostel popular with hikers.  Since we hadn't been on the Pacific Crest Trail for days, we just had an sausage appetizer.

Canada Geese grazing in Cascade Locks

The old locks are mostly underwater now, since Bonneville Dam was built (roll on, Columbia, roll on)

Western Gorge - Oregon

Trilliums are one of the first spring flowers

 THE SUN WAS ACTUALLY SHINING ON FRIDAY So we went to Crown Point

Crown Point seen from Chanticleer Point

 Crown Point, a landmark on the Columbia River Scenic Highway, was recently restored.

Mr. Thornsby likes the interior

The dome was repaired and repainted

 

The view from Crown Point looking East and down to Rooster Rock State Park

Catherine Creek near Lyle, Washington

 Last Sunday, it was actually NOT RAINING so we went east and found some sunshine.

My hiking partner crosses the bridge over the creek.
(he prefers to remain anonymous)

Like the Sandy River Delta,
the Catharine Creek site was once
a ranch (cattle and sheep).

 The creek goes steeply downhill
through basalt cliffs formed from
ancient lava flows.  A natural arch
looms above the corral.  In the Columbia River Gorge it is easy be a geology expert.  Almost everything was formed by ancient lava flows or catastrophic floods.  Almost all the cliffs are made of basalt.  You can just bandy about words like "igneous", "columnar basalt" and "Lake Missoula" and people will think you are smart.

 Mr. Thornsby perches briefly in a Ponderosa Pine.  This area features a Pine/Oak woodland and meadows filled with wildflowers.  It has an amazing diversity of wildflowers in the spring.   In addition to everything we saw at Tom McCall, we found Shooting Stars, NW Saxifrage, Nodding Microseris,

Shooting Stars - always a favorite of unicorns

and Death Camas.  Just as the name says - if you eat it, you may die.  It is said that  powdered unicorn horn  is an antidote for any poison.  Mr. Thornsby will neither confirm nor deny this statement.

Here is the type of Camas that you can eat.  The roots were roasted or steamed by Native Americans and were a staple food.  You might think it is easy to tell them apart but when they are harvested (in late summer or fall) the flowers are long gone.  

 Instead of wild plants, I suggest you eat at Everybody's Brewpub in White Salmon, Washington.  The chicken burrito is excellent and

 they brew their own beer right there!

A view of the Columbia looking Southeast and Mt. Hood floating above the clouds.