Back to Oregon

So far we love Oregon the most. Washington was nice and all, but Oregon is great. My only big complaint is the full-serve gas. At least this time through we didn't even try to get it ourselves and avoided the chastisement of the station attendants.

We drove down a forest road which took us past Mt St Helens. The road to an overlook near the peak was closed (snow again), but we got some spectacular views just the same. We also finally got a view of Rainier without too much cloud cover. The weather finally seemed to be summery, which was a welcome treat after a week and a half of cool, rain, and clouds.

We zig-zagged out of the forest and wound up along the Columbia River. We crossed at the Bridge of the Gods, though didn't stop to figure out why it was called that. Looked like a bridge, and cost $1 to go across. The Columbia River Gorge is beautiful, perhaps our favorite view of the trip so far. We drove east along the gorge and stopped at Viento State Park, arriving just before the weekend visitors ate up all the available spots. Hung out on the river bank, stopped in Hood River for a few supplies and to spray some of the dirt off the car. The forecast called for 80s and sun, a miracle!