The Dalles - Columbia River Gorge -- May/June 2025

The Dalles - May 31, 2025 

The turn around from not being able to go east from the campground was near Mosier. Travis found a hike and parking for the hike in the town of Mosier. It was interesting because the lot was a little walk from the trailhead and had some EV charging stations, noting that you could only park there while charging. We parked right next to it and wondered if that was okay. Then we found, past the "no parking" signs on private property, that there was a bigger lot closer to the river. It all worked out.

The trail was called Mosier Plateau Trail. It had some uphill and switchbacks with good views, a gorge, a waterfall, and wildflowers. There were awesome houses overlooking the gorge and waterfall. We are definitely on the dry side of Oregon now. In hindsight, I should have planned at least one more night on the wet side; it is just so pretty with the greens and waterfalls. 

 

Since I did not have a camera pocket this day, Travis had the camera, so I will include a picture of me being way behind everyone else on the hike, sigh.  

 

Some of the Oregon side cliffs.  

 

We then headed east to Rowen Crest Viewpoint. We now noticed that was very windy. Good views and a very winding road. You would expect that next picture after the one of me trying to pull the kids closer for a picture would be the picture of them closer, but no. 

  

 

Arriving in town, we had Sahara Pizza for lunch. We shared a 14" Lion's Feast, which was a meat pizza. It was plenty for the four of us and very good. They had a restroom for customers. We were the only ones there, though we came in for a bit of an early lunch, maybe close to 11am, but were also there a while. 

Moving more east, we went to The Dalles Dam. The Ranger played the movie about the dam project for us, and we looked at the displays. I set the camera down to get a national park stamp and found it after looking at the displays, oops. We asked her if there were any hiking trails or powerhouse tours. Their powerhouse is not open to the public, and she noted a short trail to closer to the dam and to the rose garden. Good views of Mt. Adams on the Washington side. A group arrived and was setting up a birthday party of the porch of the visitor center. They may have planned the picnic tables near the rose garden first but with the wind moved to a more sheltered area.  

 

 

Part of the powerhouse.  

 

 

Bridge over 197. For later, note that Travis and Owen mentioned to each other about a house going over the bridge.  

 

We then decide that it was time to see Washington, so we took 197 to WA, heading toward the Temani Pesh-Wa Petroglyphs at the Columbia Hills Historical State Park. On WA-14 on the way, there was the house (or small shed or small she-shed) that went over the bridge earlier crashed on the side of the road. It was so windy still that maybe it blew over or the driver was blow off the road. People were there, and they were working on clean up. We went back the next two days and can report that clean up was not successful. We found the Petroglyphs in a for pay area. Travis said that we could see them all here and not that interesting, so we did not park. 

 

We stopped at McDonald's for ice cream right after crossing the 197 bridge back into Oregon. We used wi-fi in McDonald's to plan our next stops, and I used it to get our whitewater rafting tickets since that auto-paid on Viator this morning. Travis wanted to go to Fort Dalles next. He was busy trying to get the kiosk to buy the ice cream to work that I did not ask him about my only found option of Fort Dalles Readiness Center. It did not seem right, but was all that I found. I forgot about asking Travis about it and navigated us to the the Readiness Center. The family says that this looks like a jr. college. Indeed it did. We did pass a viewpoint and display on the way there, so we stopped there instead. It had Mt. Adams views and War Memorial displays that I was impressed with the metal work or metal art. Also, a great view of the town below.

 

 

 

 

We then found the real Fort Dalles. This town had very tight uphill roads, at the top part of town, at least. I told Travis that it was like Hollywood Hills; he agreed. Owen had a friend come up for a pet and then followed him around the rest of the time that we were there.  

 

Our last stop in The Dalles today was to hike around the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum. A guy was watching at a pond. I thought that looked interested and joined and then the family came too. He pointed out a bass trying to eat a frog that was much bigger than the bass. We could see the frog making attempted leaps out of the water. The frog did get away. Owen trying to be a fish whisperer and bring them to his hand.  

 

Finally, it was back to the campground where we found the kids' tent especially folding over on top of the air mattress with the wind. It was still windy. Ours is blown out in this picture too. They did much prefer this campsite with the slope that slide their air mattress down and pushed it through one side of the tent, trying to tear up the tent. I ate dinner in the car; luckily, the wind slow down in time for bed.  

 

 

 Memaloose Island across from our campsite with a gravestone for a Congressman. 

 

 

Next up...Guler Ice Caves

 

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