Drive day through the Cascade Mountains to the Columbia River Corge

 Day 52: 14 July 2021

We travel through the Cascades and take a right at Portland 

As soon as we got on 84 in Portland and headed east, we could see a faint Mt Hood way off in the distance against the sky like a phantom. It was still impressive, though ghostlike!

Eventually we went over the Columbia River —this entire gorge area is a “wow”! The water is a beautiful blue and the walls of the gorge are tree-covered or bold rock faces and there are even volcanic extrusions that have survived and stand proud like enormous canine teeth in the landscape!

We are camped for two nights at the Resort at Skamania Cove. It’s a funky place with a highway behind a wall of trees on one side of us and the Columbia River down below on the other side. We can see it out of the window above the couch! Our little perch (deck?) over the side is just big enough for two chairs and blackberries, just now ripe, are abundant over the hillside. The cove is delightful, small, but has a floating pier and platform out in the river with two chairs on it. Alas, the only way to it is to swim or kayak or some other similar conveyance! I find it very peaceful there. (There’s actually a tree house and a couple of cottages at this resort tool—a house. In a tree. It’s very cool!) 

A little white sailboat across the Columbia River, taken from the little cove at our campground

The view from our campsite. Not bad. Not bad at all!
Dan did an excellent job finding this quirky and cool place!

A paddle wheeler! Seen from the Bridge of the Gods over the Columbia River, when we crossed from Oregon to Washington 

Good night from Skamania Cove on the mighty Columbia River

Tomorrow: we head to Mt Hood. Stay tuned!