Steamboat Slough Near Julia Butler Hansen Preserve

What a day we had! I wasn't able to post last night, as we lost our power at home and then our internet connection, and after 3 hours of processing 1500 photos, I was more than exhausted...decided waiting till this morning was going to have to do:)

We left Astoria fairly early, and headed to several spots in the city to check out some sloughs where we found varied ducks. Then we headed out Hwy 30 for Portland, going over the Astoria-Megler Bridge (4.1 miles long and the longest truss bridge in North American) and hit the WA side of the Columbia River. We visited the beautiful Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian white-tailed deer, where this photo was taken at Steamboat Slough. This refuge has to be my favorite that I have visited over the last 2 years. There was absolutely no one there, and we saw so many hawks and geese, and a bald eagle. The scenery was just spectacular!

Then we headed to Puget Island where we took the Cathlamet-Westport ferry which took up from WA to Oregon, following Hwy 30 back into Portland. We visited Clatskanie where much of my Mom's side of the family lived back in the early 1900's, and saw several streets named after the families.

To see my other photos from today, visit my FLICKR PAGE!

Also, I've reposted yesterday's photo and added flickr photos to the page, so if you are interested in seeing more of the snowy owl and what we did in Astoria, please feel free to revisit yesterdays page:))