American Empress

With about 80 photos in my flickr album, I was hard pressed to decide which one to feature.  I decided on the thing that was the biggest surprise of the day, which was seeing the American Empress at Stevenson, WA, just before she departed to head further east on her week long trek along the Columbia River.   Read about her here.

You can read about the cruises here.


What a treat to see this gorgeous paddle wheeler at the end of our day trip today.  Bill and I went east to Hood River, OR, then across the bridge to Bingen, White Salmon, Husum and then Trout Lake, WA.  All are small towns crowded together on the  north side of the Columbia river and Trout Lake, which is just a little village, and no lake, is the headquarters, more or less, for the many White Salmon River rafting and kayaking businesses.  We forged onward and ended up on a gravel road and landed at Goose Lake.  One of the fishermen told us that this lake was maybe 15 feet below it's usual level.  It was obviously sorely lacking in water.  But it was interesting to see this lake, and the drive there was wonderful.  We saw lots of trees and woodland creatures.  We saw wild turkeys and 3 deer (Mama and twins), right after we left the town of White Salmon.  Then we saw a chipmunk race hell bent for leather across the road in front of us.  We saw Crossbill birds on the shore of the lake, plus lots of dragonflies.  We saw a little snake basking by a small stream...a Pacific Coast Aquatic Garter Snake and thank you Google.  

We saw an old Wigwam burner, that was once commonly used at lumber mills.  I also saw three deer there, too...  We got a great view of Mt. Adams and some nice fences.  Another nice surprise was seeing the Natural Bridges, that we took a quick detour to see.  A very short walk led us to part of the McClelland Trail, and the two bridges that we saw there.  It was once a lava tube that caved in, and there were parts that didn't cave in which formed the natural bridge.  Further on there is an ice cave, but we didn't venture there.  So much to explore in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.    Gifford Pinchot?  I had to look him up, too.

I know that's a lot to look at, those 80 photos...but it's a good place for me to store some of my photos, in case my computer blows up. 

We had a great day, I hope you all did too.