Thursday morning I was able to make a couple reservations for this coming weekend and next week, which includes July 4th on Wednesday. First for Saturday and Sunday nights we scored a spot at Fort Stevens State Park west of Astoria right on the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River. With that reservation in hand, I was able to get the place I originally wanted to stay, just south of Astoria for Monday thru Friday, the week of July 4th.
With that housekeeping done, we headed out to explore the gorge. First we headed down the hill and then east on the Washington side of the river, soon we spotted the Bonneville Dam. We drove to the entrance for the visitor center and were stopped at the gate so the guard could check out what was inside the car and trunk, presumably looking for a bomb or some other terrorist things most retired folks from California drive around with.
He let us pass as we had nothing of interest. Unfortunately when we arrived we were not close time wise to their twice a day dam tours, so we decided to go look at the fish ladders. I had never seen one of those before so I figured it would be interesting. We walked thru a lot of chain link gates to get into that space, and it was fascinating to see the insides of the large concrete spillways. I assumed it would just be 
steps from the top to the bottom, but it was much more than that, all sorts of chicanes and other concrete shapes to make the water turn back on itself like a small 
whirlpool. Those must have caused a harrowing ride for the fish going both ways.
We also went downstairs in the fish viewing building to look thru the big glass windows into the ladders to watch the fish swim against the very strong current in the ladder. They must be some very determined fish to get thru that contraption to get to the other side.
Afterward we drove back over the BOTG and into the small town of Cascade Locks. We found a park along
the river, and as it was probably close to 2pm, we located a picnic table and ate our packed lunch under a large Douglas Fir overlooking the river. There was a small gem and minerals show going on in the park and all the vendors were showing lots of pretty cool looking sliced up and polished rocks.
Once we looked over all their wares, we got back in the car and headed east on the freeway toward The Dalles (Dalles rhymes with gals or pals) We started noticing as we moved further east from Cascade Locks it grew noticeably more arid very quickly. We got off the freeway in Hood River and found the Hood River Yacht Club and a cute little beach where lots of wind surfers were flying back and forth across the river at a very good clip. Did I mention it is extremely windy along this river? At least it was the three days we stayed around here, luckily not up at our campground which was about 500′ above the river. Those very tall trees would make it truly uncomfortable to camp under them if the wind was blowing there like it was down in the bottom of the gorge.
We left the river to get on Old Highway 30 toward The Dalles. It snakes its way up the foothills along the river, lots of 20 MPH blind curves. It would be a great ride on the motorcycle, but a veritable nightmare in our bus. We arrived in The Dalles and it was just another town along the river to me. I didn’t see anything of note while driving thru it. There is another bridge 
across the river here, and for some reason this one is free. On the way toward the bridge, Kathy wanted to snap a picture, so I pulled over and she got out. She practically blew over the guardrail as some wind gusts I guessed of about 80 MPH tried to take her to Oz. Did I mention it’s windy near the river?
Just up river from the bridge was another that was built in the 60’s called the John Day Dam. You can see it in the pics.
We arrived on the other side of the river a few minutes later — this was a much wider bridge than the BOTG –and headed west toward our base 
camp. Along the way we stopped at a rest area and overlook where again it was extremely windy on a small promontory on the river. We could see more wind surfers further west on the river and got back on the highway to go find them.
We found a lot of them quite a few miles south of the Hood River Bridge at a national fish hatchery. Those folks really move across the water being pulled along by kites or small parachutes. I bet that is an incredible workout. No need to hit the gym after doing that for an hour.
As we drove down that small side road along the river, we made our way into the fish hatchery just as it closed. We headed back toward our camp to cook some dinner and kick back for the evening.
The next morning we got a late start and headed back toward the hatchery during its open hours. When we got there, we saw at least triple the amount of wind surfers on the water than the prior late afternoon. The fish hatchery was open so we went in and parked. To my 
chagrin, there were no fish in the tanks. They explained they were all let out in May.
While we were leaving the hatchery, we noticed that today you could see Mt. Hood very clearly in the distance. As I got ready to snap a shot of the 
mountain, it got even better as a cloud on the east side of it moved a bit further away to allow its volcanic shape to really shine.
So we headed over the Hood River Bridge and worked our way back west toward Cascade Locks for lunch at a small restaurant on the water we had noticed the day before which was also the landing for a paddle wheeler that plied the river.
We had some really good fish and chips. They even had a gluten free choice. Kathy said it was the first time she had had fish and chips in at least 5 years! They had a Dechutes Porter on the menu. It was like being in heaven. We thought about taking a one-hour tour on the paddle wheeler, but they don’t permit pets so we didn’t give them our money. I’m not sure how they stay in business as the boat was not very full when it arrived back, nor were there many people waiting for the tour getting ready to leave. But it was a true paddle wheeler. You could tell when they tried to dock the thing, a prop right in front of the rudder would have made that much easier.
We left Cascade Locks to drive down to the Oregon side of the Bonneville Dam. Again we had to let the guard check for bombs and such. Again we didn’t have any for them. But this time as we drove in, we passed a lock and I noticed there was a barge in there that I had seen heading downriver while we were having lunch; so I made a U-turn and drove back over to the lock parking lot.
To my surprise, you can walk right up to the ships at this lock and touch them. Last year, at the Eisenhower lock, you were behind a tall chain-link fence. So this was pretty cool. We got there just a few minutes before they were to lower the water to bring the barges and tugboat down about 60′ to the level of the river below the dam. As the tug left the lock, it was amazing to see it steer those very large barges sticking so far out in front of it. After another smaller craft, maybe a 40-foot boat, motored into the lock to head upstream, we left and drove over toward the dam.
We were amazed as on this side of the Bonneville you drove your car right on the dam to get to the visitor center. You were also allowed to go inside the power 
house without a tour, and there was a great picture vantage point of the Washington side’s dam spillway. They were letting out a lot of water. It made quite a sound. Turn up the volume to watch and listen to the short video.
And the windows in the fish viewing area were quite a bit less murky so the fish were easier to see. Check out the video below.
We headed back toward the campground and spotted another hatchery and drove over to see if they had any fish. They did, looked like millions of minnows in the tanks spread out over many acres. Turns out this hatchery was the original one set up back around the turn of last century.
After walking around it for maybe a half an hour, we headed back to get the coach ready to move out to the mouth of the river west of Astoria, Oregon tomorrow.