Category Archives: Outdoors

STARVATION CREEK – UNCOVERING MAGIC IN THE MINIATURE WATERFALL ALLEY

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Wind Mountain stands across the river from Camp Benson Falls next to Shellrock Mountain.

The area around Starvation Creek along I-84 has undergone some changes with the recent restoration of the Historic Columbia River Highway here in 2019.  For a long time, the site has been a rest area with a short trail leading to the drama of Starvation Creek Falls.  It is also the beginning of a couple of the hardest trails found in the Gorge, Starvation Ridge and Mount Defiance trails.  These trails entail a gain of 5,000 feet, with the latter trail doing it in under five miles.  But before going high there is a lot to discover down below.

In the short stretch between the rest area and Shellrock Mountain about two miles to the west, five waterfalls easily come into view; one other notable if it has rained hard recently and two or three others a bit harder to access – especially if you have to carry a 38-pound cogi.

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TWIN TUNNELS OF MOSIER; WINDOWS REVEAL MAGIC OF THE SYNCLINE

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Deep in the heart of the Twin Tunnels.
Deep in the heart of the Twin Tunnels.

To date, the Twin Tunnels of Mosier make up the most spectacular section of the Historic Columbia River Highway formerly lost, now restored. That honor will probably fall in a couple years, superseded when the Mitchell Point section comes back. From the viewpoint near the tunnels, you look out to the magnificence of the tilted synclines on both sides of the mighty river. Come in springtime and the floral display will be on to add to the magic.

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MIST FALLS – GAINING THE SECRETS OF THE GORGE’S DIAPHONOUS PRINCESS

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Mist Falls turned down - from Hartmann Pond in Benson State Park.
Mist Falls turned down – from Hartmann Pond in Benson State Park.

In Scott Cook’s wonderful round-up gem of places lesser known in the Columbia River Gorge, Curious Gorge, Mist Falls is uncovered and revealed. This waterfall moods changes dramatically with the seasons, from a solid waterfall after a rain to one with mists dancing in the wind. Mists never seeming to be in any hurry to settle back on the ground as they enjoy their brief moment of freedom. It sits as a nearby neighbor to the king, Multnomah Falls. The waterfall is most visible to the motorists ripping along Interstate 84. Those motorists – the drivers, anyway – only get a fleeting glance. Their attentions quickly focus on cars using the left-hand exit for the nearby huge parking lot at Multnomah. Mist Falls is a true overlooked gem in the midst of Waterfall Alley.

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LINNTON TRAIL – ASCENDING INTO THE PRIMEVAL MAGIC

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As Portland grew during the 19th and 20th centuries, smaller towns were annexed along the way.  Some of those towns were substantial, like East Portland.  Others were much smaller, like the little town of Linnton across the Willamette River from St Johns. The last post touched on the Lower Columbia River Highway. This time we will come back closer to the beginning of that road.

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LOWER COLUMBIA RIVER HIGHWAY – MAGIC IN THE REMAINS

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Dogs water in the plunge pool beneath Beaver Falls.
Dogs water in the plunge pool beneath Beaver Falls.

After posts on Samuel Hill, Samuel Lancaster, and Henry Bowlby it was time for me to revisit some of the projects they inspired and oversaw.  The Columbia River Highway remains the magic the three men. That magic best shared along the Upper Columbia River Highway, known today as the Historic Columbia River Highway.  A couple fine books have been written on this road.  And while in the future, I may hit upon some of the highlights (Shepperd’s Dell is one such case), today it is the Lower Columbia River Highway.

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HENRY BOWLBY – FLYING BISCUITS TO THE COLUMBIA

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The two Samuel’s – Hill and Lancaster – get all of the attention for the building of the Columbia River highway in the Gorge where the mighty river bores through the Cascades Range. The highway project proposed by Sam Hill included a highway from Portland downriver to the ocean at Astoria. Enter Henry Lee Bowlby.

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SAMUEL LANCASTER – CREATING THE FRAME TO THE BEAUTIFUL PICTURE

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Samuel Lancaster plaque on the Vista House.
Samuel Lancaster plaque on the Vista House.

Samuel Lancaster established himself one of the pioneers of modern American highway construction with his connection to the Columbia River Gorge highway project in 1915.  That highway was only one of a myriad of programs involving Lancaster over a busy lifetime.

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HIGHEST OF THE HIGH SIERRA

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Mt Whitney rises above the jumbled rocks of the Alabama Hills like the scene from Gladiator.

Mt Whitney is the goal of many who search out adventure and challenge in the High Sierra. It is the highest peak – 14,498 feet – in not only these mountains, but all the summits in the states south of Alaska beating out Colorado’s Mt Elbert by 65 feet and its neighbor to the south, Mt Harvard by 78 feet. Being the highest is a magnet.  A magnet means too many people and the result is the Mt Whitney lottery system.

But the crest of the High Sierra is so much beyond Whitney. There is a lifetime of peaks waiting for you here. The views are incredible and so can be the efforts to attain them.

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KARAVANKE – FORGOTTEN MOUNTAINS OF SLOVENIA

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Mountain haze shared with cows atop Dovška Baba with Visoki Kurjek ahead on the Karavanke crest

The geography of Slovenia’s greatest mountain range, the Julian Alps is a confused mess. Mapmakers are much more at home with the Karavanke.  This chain extends for about 75 miles – 120 kilometers – in a west to east fashion geographically separating the Drava and Sava river valleys.  They form a border between Slovenia and Austria. The Karawanke continue the function of the Carnic Alps separating Italy and Austria further to the west.  As a border, the Karawanke have served that purpose since at least Roman times.

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SAM HILL – NEW WORLD STONEHENGE DREAMER

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An appropriately masked guitarist makes music at the altar stone of Stonehenge

To say Samuel Hill lived a fascinating life is almost an understatement.  A frenetic Quaker, Sam’s life is magnificently on display online where you can find his excellent biography Sam Hill, The Prince of Castle Nowhere written by John Tuhy.  Among his many interests was his participation in the Good Roads movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Hill was instrumental in the development of both the Pacific Highway, a route linking the three Coastal States to each other from Canada to Mexico.  He pushed for the development of a true coastal highway paralleling the Pacific Highway – today’s US 101 – as well.  But Hill is best known for his role in the development of the Columbia River Gorge Highway, now over a hundred years old.

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