Cascade Locks, Or. Area

Yesterday was move day, a whole 60 miles! Dean loves those kind of days. We took I-205 to I-84 and were very surprised that the traffic was not bad. We've been avoiding I-5 because every time we crossed it the traffic was at a standstill - this was in the Tualatin, OR area. We really like to take the back roads, but with so little mileage to do, we wanted to get parked and explore.

We had to wait for about one hour to get into our site at the Cascade Locks KOA, since we arrived early. After getting set up and having a light lunch, off we went to drive the "Fruit Loop". To drive this we got back on I-84 to Hood River, OR and then followed the map. This loop takes you past many, many orchards, vineyards, fields of lavender and fruit stands and stores. You also get some tremendous views of Mt. Hoot and Mt. Adams in Washington.

One of the side trips you can take off the loop is to Lost Lake and we decided to add this to our drive. It is about 14 miles off the main road, but the road back for the most part was good. You are climbing so of course there are the curves, but not bad. Only about the last 4 miles or so does the road get a little narrow and very curvy, this is where the county road maintenance stops and you could really tell as the shrubs along the road, at times where over the road. The drive to Lost Lake is really a pretty one as you go through heavy forest and see lots of wild flowers. Just when you think that you will never get to Lost Lake, there is the entrance to the National Park and just a short drive past the lake comes into view. Ahhh, how beautiful it is here. Another not to be missed drive if your ever in this area. I'll let the pictures do the talking but here is a sample of what we saw.



You will have to go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/SchultzTravelPhotos to see the rest.

I am now taking pictures with a new camera - I hope I made a good choice. It is a Panasonic Lumix with a 10x zoom (optical) and 40x zoom with digital added. I've been playing with it and I think it will give me the pictures I'm looking for. It also has a feature that will allow me to take continuous pictures by just holding down the button - will be great for getting the whale and eagle shots in Alaska. It has so many features along with the automatic setting feature. Had a Panasonic rep. go through all the features with me and that helped. Playing with this camera will be fun.

Today we are off in search of the waterfalls. Check back.