Eastern Oregon is quite dry and un-inviting, but once you get to the Columbia River and all the dams, it gets much more interesting. We did a "detour" on the way out to Ashley's graduation to see the Bonneville Lock and Dam system.
The dam with a yellow rose in the foreground. They had done a nice job of landscaping and we found that all of western Oregon is a haven for roses.
In the bottom of the visitors center (elevator takes you down) they have a viewing area which lets the public view the counting of the fish going upstream. This is one of the larger ones we saw with the fainter fish in the background as more common. They did have lamprey (not EELS!!) stuck to the bottom of some of the viewing windows. You could also go outside to see the "fish ladders" that allow the salmon to go upstream. They spend a lot of time and money making sure that the fish can get back to their spawning grounds. All dams on the river have these ladders.
Another side trip for the famous falls that pour off of the south wall of the gorge and run into the river. Multnomah was set back a little bit, so Carol looked at it from the car.
This was her view with a parking area and resturant in the front of the falls.
I wandered back a little further and snapped this photo. There is a bridge between the two green areas which has several people but they show up as little dots. It is a pretty high falls.
Horsetail falls was the easiest to see, as it fell right by the highway (secondary road, not the interstate).
That is Ron on the sidewalk just off the main road.
A big thumbs up for this gift of Mother Nature.
There were lots of smaller falls and water features, but these are the most striking!!
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