Day 16 (Aug. 16, '09)

Left the KOA around 9:30 AM. Headed out to see more waterfalls. We went hiking looking for Grayson Creek Falls. We ended up following a little stream bed, because we couldn't find a trail. It was slow making our way up, because there were a lot of loose rocks and slippery logs. We never found the falls but we probably spent around 5 hours altogether looking for it on the mountainside. Kept going up and up the creek bed thinking the falls would be above every ledge and around the next corner. We made up to the very top of the gorge/mountainside, but got to a ledge where it was too steep and impassable.

Anne headed back down the Gorge.

It was crazy for us to go as far as we did. Quiet an adventure. But on the other hand, quiet dumb. We got ourselves in some very tricky/dangerous situations where we were trying to scale wet boulders that didn't seem to be very stable. We won't be doing something like that again. We were silently praying that neither of us would fall or slip, not to mention get snake bit. That's a whole different aspect that we became numb to because of the immediate danger of falling.

During this little adventure we were wearing our Crocs. Not the best shoe for scaling the mountainside. They did grip wet rock great though. Maybe they were a blessing in disguise.

By the time we made it back to the Jeep we were starving. Cecil was quiet hungry before the 5-6 hour trip. So when we got to the town of Hood River we found a Mexican restaurant. Pretty good food! Cecil had his usual of Carne Asada Burrito. Anne had a Chipolite Chicken Quesadilla.

Hood River. There is a snake on closest rock to the left.

Both of us were resolved that we had had enough of the majestic Columbia River Gorge. The whole Grayson Creek episode made us look forward to the dryer flat land that central Oregon has. We drove out Hood River on Hwy. 35 towards Mt. Hood. This drive was beautiful. Many large fields of grapes and fruit, and fruit stands. We stopped at several and bought peaches, apples, cherries and grapes. It was interesting to see large fields labeled with the names of different wines. So of course I am assuming that a Chardonnay wine is given it's name from a type of grape called Chardonnay. Anyway, this countryside is a great place to see.

We thought about camping in the Mt. Hood Park, but for the most part it was all deserted. We wanted to put miles from us and the Columbia River Gorge. From the looks of all the Sno-Park signs, this place must be very popular for winter sports. We continued on past Mt. Hood into the Warm Springs Indian Res. to Madras, where we found a campsite at Simtustus Lake. Pretty area, like a mini Grand Canyon.

Lake Simtustus, Idaho close to where we camped.

Cecil had to wait a while for his shower though because there were 3 very strange guys in the bathroom who were wild and noisy with foul mouths in the bathroom. One walked out of the bathroom naked (except for his cowboy hat of course) to his big extended cab, long bed truck. They starred at us a lot. Not sure which one of us they took a liking to. Really creeped us out because we were the only people on the top pad camping next to the restrooms. All the other campers were located down below at the lake.