Emigrant Lake

On the way to Emigrant Lake we topped off our fuel tank as it was going to jump about a dollar a gallon just a few miles south of the lake at the California border.

We got there and the lake was Very low.   It was a very long way down to the water.  Even the ends of the boat ramps and floating docks were hundreds of feet from the edge of the water when we were there.

The campground side for larger vehicles is all the way at the end of the road on a tall peninsula.   It was interesting as we drove out there, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck tingle as the height came into view over the rise.

Tami & Scott arrived the day after we got there as their repairs took a bit longer to complete the work they wanted done.   We did get to have lunch one day on the Ashland Riverwalk.   Nice small town, and lots of Oregonian folks.  You need to spend a bit of time in a small town in Oregon to know what I mean.

The best view site was RV21, a pull-thru overlooking the whole lake.  We were not in that site, but wished we were.

This park had the worst stickers Kathy has ever seen and it was impossible to walk Dusty unless we drove him to the day use area, which had nice lush grass.  The sign said no pets, but there were no people at this time of year so I dared it!

Valley of the Rogue

We were meeting back up with friends at this campground and staying for a few days.   When I was setting this camping up, I noticed how close it was to the 5 freeway.  So when we arrived and found our spot, I was pleasantly surprised how quiet it was.  And the Rogue River had a very small rapids area right across from us by Scott and Tami’s spot, so there was the sounds of the water right there making it a pleasant experience.

I spent some of the time there cleaning the basement that had gotten a bit dirty over the last several months.  Did some rearranging of stuff under there to lessen the weight on the right rear of the coach that I had found out about traversing a couple unoccupied weigh stations along the way to Champoeg.  (Shampoo)

One afternoon we headed over to Grant’s Pass for lunch along the Rogue River.  Was a pretty nice place with tables next to and overlooking the river.  Food was very good too.  (River’s Edge Restaurant)

One evening we were sitting outside our friends’ coach sipping on some beer and above us were hundreds of birds circling.  They looked like hawks to me and Scott thought they were turkey vultures.   I kept trying to get them into a picture but could only get some of them in any one shot.   They stuck around for a couple hours riding the thermals and dropping down and doing it again.  It was pretty cool as I had not seen that many birds doing anything like that before.

 

Manitou Springs morning walk

As I had mentioned in a prior post, we wanted to come back to walk around Manitou Springs some morning.   Today was the day.   Lots of touristy shops and restaurants and nice parks, and surprisingly lots of springs plumbed right into buildings or rocks on the side of the road.  Some a bit ornate, others just look like they grew there.  There were a few signs that explained the mineral content of each spring.

We walked uphill on the shady sidewalk till Kathy said she could go no more..  Then we went back down the other side of the narrow roadway, with cars and buses heading up the hill to the cog railway station, till we were done shopping and found a place to get lunch on the patio.

July 16th 2022

Garden of the Gods and the Academy Chapel

This was another place I found when we got to Colorado Springs and figured we would make a trip over to check it out.   It was a pretty amazing place.  You’d think it was a national park, but it’s actually a city park.   There are some pretty amazing rock formations of vibrant colors with smooth sidewalks paved to wander around all of them.   And another amazing thing is there wasn’t a charge to visit.  Most of the national parks are around $30 a day now.  I kept driving thinking I would find the pay station, but there wasn’t one.  Nice!

I call them rocks, but they were really 1,000-foot-tall mountains that just looked like one big rock.  It’s something you must see if visiting Colorado Springs and only have an hour or two.

I looked up the Air Force Academy Chapel to find out its hours, and it’s closed till 2027 for repairs.  What a bummer.   2027 is a long way away, there must be something terribly wrong with it.   July 16th 2022

Pikes Peak Cog Railway Trip

We purchased reserved seats for the Cog Railway out of Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak for a 9:20 am departure.  We arrived early as everything we read said parking was scarce.  And it really was; but as we got there around 8:20, an hour before, we had no issues.  There was so little parking up there, I bet the 10 am train folks would be either walking a mile or two or would have to take a shuttle from parking down in the town.

Boarding time arrived fairly quickly and we found our seats.  We were in one of the older trains and the seats were two abreast and faced the two seat in front of you.  My knees were touching the seat in front of me.  Yikes!  Lucky for me a small child sat there. Some tall guys were across the aisle from us and their legs were straddling each other.   And then, we both lucked out even further as a woman gave up her seat a row in front of us to sit with friends elsewhere in the coach, and the folks in the seats facing us could move ahead to be with the rest of their family.  Wow!!   If I ever had to go again, I would buy all 4 seats for two of us.   The newer trains may have more room.  Looked like it from a distance.

The engine was fairly loud and roared all the way up to the top; and coming down, seemed a bit louder.   It’s a single-lane track with occasional sidings to allow trains to pass each other.  My thought is it’s normal to pass two trains on each way as they leave about 40 minutes apart.   It’s an extremely steep grade, so it makes sense they use a cog (gear) to keep moving at a safe speed.  It’s probably even more important when going back down.

The ride is about 1 1/2 hours each way with about 40 minutes at the top.  It’s windy and cold up there.  It was close to 90 in Colorado Springs and probably 40 at the top.   It’s over 14,000 feet, and you will notice how thin the air is just moving around, and the stairs will have you huffing and puffing in a few steps!  I guess one of the features of being up there is you get to see kids throwing up.  We got to see a couple.  Not sure if the parents had them eating at the snack bar or it was just the lack of oxygen or possibly a combination of both.  That part is not mentioned in the brochure.

I had purchased two cans of oxygen at a local store prior to going there just in case.  They are both still unopened.  I had read about them always being out of them at the top.  I didn’t see anyone else using them.  Ours never came out of the backpack.  They are in thin aluminum canisters that seem to be empty as they are so light.

Anyway, beautiful views in all directions while we were there.  We had picked a perfect day, hardly any clouds in the sky.   I had forgotten you can also drive to the top.  I was talking to a guy that had driven his Tesla up with his family.   I bet that regenerative braking was very helpful on the way back down!  I heard there was a brake check on the way down where someone comes out and lets you know if you can go further or not based on your brakes.  (temperature?) Not sure what happens if they determine your brakes are a problem.

The trip up and back down were uneventful, until the boy in the seat ahead of us started throwing up out the window.  Felt bad for him.  When we drove back down through Manitou Springs, we noticed it had a pretty nice old downtown and we would come back and visit if we had time later in the week.

July 14th 2022

Royal Gorge, Canon City, Cripple Creek and Victor Colorado

We left the convergence and drove about 30 miles east to a nice small campground just up the road from the Royal Gorge.  I didn’t know much about it but decided we would visit and know a lot more.

After setting up in our campsite, we drove over to the gorge that afternoon.  It was very hot that day, so we just drove around to see what was there.  It struck me as odd, the bridge over the gorge was this huge suspension bridge and it seemed to go nowhere.   We decided to come back the next morning when it would be a lot cooler.

The next morning we drove back over there and paid to go into the “park”.  Turns out this whole thing is really an amusement park.  The bridge was built over the gorge strictly as a tourist attraction.  On the other side of the bridge, which you can only walk across now, is the amusement park.

We decided to take the gondolas across then walk back over the bridge; but after being in line for it for about 15 minutes, they shut it down due to high winds.  And it was very windy!

There were also two ziplines that originated on the other (uphill) side of the gorge and people were zipping over.  They came in very fast, and there were rubber blocks on the line that slowed them down very quickly.  I was thinking whiplash might be a real possibility.  Those ziplines are over a thousand feet in the air.   Hard to imagine that.

After the gondolas were shut down, we walked down to the beginning of the bridge, then out on it about halfway across.   We were glad we didn’t bring Dusty as it was so windy out there we probably would have needed to carry him or he could blow away!  I could feel the bridge moving and that’s not a comforting feeling.  We snapped a few pics and proceeded back across while watching my footsteps as there were a lot of older boards that didn’t look so sturdy to me anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve crossed a lot of bridges in my life, but I do not remember one that was anywhere near as high off the ground as this one.  It was about 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River below.  Interestingly, I saw a RxR track running alongside the river way down there.

When we left there, we headed toward Canon City, just a few miles east of the gorge.  I had read something about Skyline Drive, so I decided to use that route to get into town.  That was quite a drive, not for the faint of heart.  Narrow one lane (lucky for us, one way also)  that traverses the top of a mountain ridge all the way to town.   There were a few parts that my acrophobia kicked in and it was all I could do to stay in the middle of that road and look at nothing else.  The dash-cam video shows just how small and high it is.   It comes out at the bottom of the hill after a few switchbacks right into a residential neighborhood.

First Half of Skyline Drive

 

Not  far from the base of the end of Skyline Drive was the Colorado Prison Museum.  We drove by and they didn’t allow dogs inside and it was way too hot to leave him in the car.

I did get to see the gas chamber they used there.  Interesting gadget.  The walls were very thick steel, something I would have expected on a diving bell to see the bottom of the Marianas Trench, not something for using at sea level.

The following day we headed up to Cripple Creek, an old mining town in the mountains.  What a beautiful drive with everything green as far as you could see, miles and miles of trees and meadows with some cattle grazing along the way.

We got into town and we decided to drive thru it to see Victor first and then come back to CC.  On the way to Victor, we saw a very tall pile of dirt, I mean really, really tall and wide. It turns out it’s an active gold mine, a big open pit, but there appeared to be no way to see into it.  We drove for a few more miles, the whole time the wall of dirt was just to the left of us.

We arrived in Victor and it’s a really nice little mountain town, lots of old buildings.  We stopped at a small parking area across from the fire station and city hall.  Nice mural right there.   I saw a fireman outside washing his rig, so I went over to talk to him, figuring he knew a lot about this town.  I knew nothing.

He turned out to be a wealth of information, and the best part was he knew a way to see into the big strip mine just up the road.   We wandered around the town for a little bit, then headed out, remembering the directions to the overlook.  They were a bit vague, but we found it anyway.

And it was spectacular!  Even the platform was over the top, made out of the bed of one of the old ore hauling truck beds with a platform and stairs welded into it.  Quite an impressive structure.  And the view from it into the mine was great.   It’s an active mine and we saw trucks moving ore to and fro.

Turns out they produce more than half a billion dollars of gold per year.  Not chump change!   I didn’t know we had much gold mining in the US.

The pit is Huge, yes, with a capital H, huge.

After spending time to take it all in, we headed back to Cripple Creek and along the way stopped at an old shaft gold mine that is now a tourist attraction.  There is a mine elevator that takes you down 1,000 feet and then you can explore the tunnels.  No dogs allowed and it was still very hot, so I just took a picture of the double-decker elevator that had just a single cable hauling it up and down.  Looked like a single point of failure to my eyes.

We drove the few miles into Cripple Creek, and the first thing you notice in the small town are the 500-foot-high cranes you see when they build skyscrapers, and they appear to be building some right in downtown.  I wasn’t really impressed by the town.  It appeared to only be a casino town.  Lots and lots of casinos.  Nothing much else there.

We wanted to get lunch, and there was nowhere that allowed pets and almost all were actually part of a casino.   We couldn’t even find a takeout place.  Sad.  We did find a nice pavilion on a slight hill with picnic tables in the shade to eat some snacks we brought for the drive.   It was odd, there wasn’t even a Subway to get  a sandwich in the town.  And they seem to be everywhere you look.

We noticed big, dark clouds in the west (the direction we had to go back) and I called the local police station asking about this other road I could see on the map that went almost directly south toward our campground, 50 miles away or so.    The dispatcher said it’s not a road for the faint hearted nor is it ever maintained as it goes along the river on a ledge for miles.  So no go.

We drove toward the storm.   But missed it, only skirting the edges and got a few sprinkles.   But when we got back to the coach, the wind was blowing hard and it started raining buckets of water.  I was glad I wasn’t driving a mountain road in that.

The next morning I drove down to the prison museum by myself and took the tour.  Pretty underwhelming.  Old and musty place.  It was worth the $3 to get in, but just barely.

The next morning we were off to Colorado Springs.

 

July 10th thru the 13th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telluride Colorado

The day after we went to Ouray, we drove over to Telluride for a day trip.  We got there fairly early and were able to find a parking space quickly.   We walked over to the gondola and looked for a gondola with paw prints on the side, which indicated we could bring Dusty on it.   Then we were off, climbing to 10k feet, where the car stopped and then proceeded to head downward to Mountain Village.   While it was stopped for a few seconds, we saw a great poster on the wall of 5 Labrador Retrievers in a gondola with goggles and headgear on.  Very cute!  Kathy didn’t buy the coffee mug of this picture while on top, so she had to find the studio in town to get it when she changed her mind!!

We arrived at the village a few minutes later.   By this time we were looking for breakfast or lunch and settled for brunch in a very nice outdoor restaurant.  Afterward we wandered around the village for a little while and then boarded another pawed gondola for the ride back down to Telluride.   Once there we walked over to a farmers market that was taking up a side street going up the hill.  The farmers markets in Colorado do have some veggies along with the other stuff.

Overall Telluride was a nice small town, Mountain Village was more of an upscale destination with the requisite prices to go along with that.  I personally liked Ouray more, and would skip Telluride, unless you want to take the lifts up for mountain biking.  (or skiing in the winter) .

June 24th

Ouray!

We drove the short distance from Olathe to Ridgway, Colorado, and slipped into  our very nice pull-thru site in Ridgway State Park.   The campsite had a great patio and even had a metal roof structure over that.  This park had no sewer hookups and just a few central water faucets to fill your tanks, but it did have 30 amp power in case we needed to run the A/C, which it turns out wasn’t required here.

The next morning we drove the car over to Ouray, a small town with a special waterfall that I had read about.   On the way out we passed by quite a few deer grazing by the roadway.  We got to the waterfall set up a narrow dirt road.  Once there you couldn’t tell what the trees were hiding, so I purchased tickets in the gift shop to go check it out.  I think they were $3 each.   While doing that I found out it is a city park.

The short hike was amazing.  The metal catwalks were as described in whatever site I had read about them.   There was one very short area where a big piece of rock hangs over the cantilevered walkway;  needless to say, I had to duck.  As you walk closer to the falls, you can just see a glimpse of the falls,  but the noise from them was unmistakable and very loud.  The kind that requires shouting for someone next to you to hear you.

This is something you must experience if you are within driving distance of Ouray.  It’s a short jaunt around the whole place, but well worth the experience.  I had not seen anything quite like this before.  Stepping down into this narrow loud canyon was pretty awesome.

 

OurayWaterFall  This is a link to a short video of the falls from down in the canyon itself.

After seeing everything we wanted to, we headed back to the car to visit the historical town of Ouray.   It had a big, wide main street with a good slope in all directions.  We walked the town looking for trinkets to remind us of this pretty, small place.   I found a very nice pint glass and christened it that evening back at the campsite.    Also picked up a small magnet for the fridge.

Just as we got to the top of the hill, the furthest from the car, it started to pour!  And of course our rain coats were in said car.  Dusty wasn’t happy at all.  He really dislikes going out in the rain, and here we had no choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the campground and got behind this camper with the most bikes hanging off the back I have ever seen.  Made me wonder if all the riders fit into that camper.

When we got back to Ridgway SP, we explored all the areas of the campground.  We were camped in the Dakota Terraces campground just above a very large lake (reservoir) with a huge boat launch area to our north.  There was also a camping loop probably 500 feet higher than our loop, but it was mainly for smaller RV’s, although there was one squeezed into a site up there that was probably our size.

I just loved the Jetsonsesq looking camper that was just down the road from us.  I had never seen anything like it.  I never saw anyone around it.  I kept looking as I wanted to ask them about it.  The tail lights were to die for. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we drove down to another part of the campground called Pa-Co-Chu-Puk Campground that was below the huge earthen dam holding back the reservoir.    To me, there is just something about camping right below a huge earthen dam over my head that would probably prevent me from sleeping at night.  Apparently I didn’t think to take a picture down there, so here is a Google Sat View showing the campground near the bottom right and the dam just above it.

June 23rd

Grand Junction and on to Montrose Colorado, Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We left Green River the next morning after the park attempted to flood the RV.  I liked it there, but the fire hose situation was maddening.   We drove east on I-70 all the way past Grand Junction to the small town of Paradise, Colorado, for fuel.  I found a place that was $5.39 a gallon, about 25 cents lower than anything nearby.   It took a long time to fuel up here too as the clerk could only put in $299.99, nothing higher; so I had to go back in for them to restart the pump two more times to fill up.

After we filled up, we headed to Olathe, Colorado, where we stayed at a very nice park called Uncompahgre River RV Park.   It was in a residential area and lots of shade trees.  Once I saw the huge trees lining the long wide driveway, I new I had probably made the right choice to stay for 5 nights so we could explore the area.

The next morning we headed out early to check out the Black Canyon of the Gunnison before it got too crowded.  It was a good choice, even early in the morning there were only a few parking spots left at many of the overlooks.  The canyon had very steep black cliffs, so it was named appropriately.  We were in the south section of the park and there were trails out to some overlooks that were farther away from the road, but the terrain made me think there weren’t many real hiking trails, unless they were only for big horn sheep.

We were out of the park before noon and there was quite a long line at the entrance kiosk to the park by then.  We were very happy we got an unusually early start.   We were also happy to use our National Park Senior pass again.  That was $10 well spent on our first trip back in 2017 at Montezuma’s Castle.    Unfortunately I did not keep track after we saved about $300 that first year on national park admissions.  But again,  best $10 ever spent.

That night we wanted Mexican food and there were 3 places within around    10 miles, 2 very close and one out in the middle of nowhere.   Turns out the one way out there was the best rated, but it closed at 2 pm every day.  One afternoon on the way back from somewhere, we found the spot it was supposed to be, a small clearing at the corner of a couple small roads.  We saw a couple picnic tables under the trees back off the road, but no restaurant that I could see.  Turns out it’s a food truck, and apparently they drive it home around 2 pm.

I ended up getting takeout from Carniceria El Bajio on Main Street.  Talk about a hole-in-the-wall place.  It’s nothing to look at when you walk in, and you might want to walk out once inside.  Not the cleanest place I have ever been in, but the tacos were some of the best I have ever had.

The next day we headed into Montrose about 10 miles south of Olathe and we wandered around the old section of town.  It was the Juneteenth holiday and lots (most) of the shops were closed for the holiday.  It seemed odd as a lot of them were small places that tourists would probably love to check out.  Even the small brewery on the main street was closed.  Seems the folks in Colorado take their brand new National Holidays very seriously! The town had some awesome large bronze statues along its wide boulevard.   Here are some pics.

Later we picked up some lunch and drove over to the Montrose Water Sports Park and what a wonderful place it was.   The city modified the river’s path to include some rapids for surfers to ride and some square stones to make it easier to get into and out of the water.  Lots of small kayaks and even tubes were traversing the waterway.  We wandered around there for an hour or so just watching and admiring the park that they had built and so many folks there enjoying it.

IMG_8277_1655671021000 IMG_8275_1655670859000

We were heading toward Ridgeway State Park next and from there would check out the towns of Ouray and Telluride.   After that we would traverse the infamous Million Dollar Highway.

June 17th thru 22nd.

 

 

 

 

 

Exploring the Columbia River Gorge

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.