Day 8 - All along the Columbia River

From Bozeman we made our final journey west before dropping south towards San Francisco and LA.  We had a long journey ahead of us, a good 12 hours of solid driving accompanied with the extra hour for pit stops and breaks to refuel the space dragon.  The drive, although long and tiring behind the wheel, was beautiful and satisfying.  We traveled along the Columbia River, which splits most of the northern border of Oregon from Washington state, and is actually the largest river in the Pacific Northwest (of North America) clocking at over 1,200 miles long!

But before hitting the Columbia River, we still had the rest of Montana to drive through, along with the 70 mile northern tip of Idaho, and the Southwest corner of Washington.  The remainder of Montana was not dissimilar to the rest of it - however it became much greener as we approached the Idaho border. 

An accurate description of Idaho is "forests galore".  I hadn't seen this many trees so closely packed together since Pennsylvania.  It was refreshing - the west coast was not all dry lands after all.

I may have spoken too soon - Washington was vastly different and most of the western corner seemed pretty dry and vacant.

 I don't want to discredit the state, though, because we did pass through areas where there were some foliage and small bodies of water.

But alas, it was not until we reached Portland that we really saw some scenery.

The Columbia river was pretty massive, and for 3/4 of the border between Oregon and Washington, you must cross over the river.  It almost gave the impression that we were leaving the mainland and headed towards an island.

Approaching the Oregon border

Of course this was not the case and in fact, we still had several hours left before we hit Portland.  But I would not have changed routes for an earlier arrival time.  The drive along the Columbia River was well worth it, as these pictures clearly portray.

Space dragon cruising along

Columbia Gorge

Admiring the view

Washington's mountains and Oregon's cliffs border the Columbia River creating a wind tunnel perfect for wind surfing and kite surfing.

Washington's mountains with wind surfers in the river

Oregon's cliffs

Before ending our trip, we were fortunate enough [again] to witness another glorious sunset behind the mountain tops...and not just any mountain top, but the top of Mount Hood - part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the highest mountain in Oregon, peaking at over 11,000 feet.

That helped us enjoy the remainder of our journey into Portland.  Unfortunately this meant that it was dark and so we weren't able to see the city skyline as we approached.  But we did see some pretty lights coming in!

What up Strom! - Portland lights!