What a beautiful drive! It is just jaw dropping beauty.....after the not so pretty stuff near the beginning of today. We could see Mt. Hood from hours away. It was the coolest thing ever! We were just driving to it most of the morning which was super neat. We drove along the Columbia River Gorge for some time. It is beautiful and has many hydro plants along it.
Mt. Hood was so beautiful. Magestic! I felt so loved by God because he blessed us such stunning beauty in nature to see, explore, enjoy and love. I was just so wrapped by the beauty it was just so sureal. The crisp mountain air, the greeness of it all, the fact that we were there....I was so full of gratitude that my heart was so full.
We decided not to do any real hiking at Mt. Hood, so we could do more hiking around all the waterfalls we wanted to go see. We stopped along the way at a cute little shop in the middle of no-where that had beautful views of Mt. Hood, so we looked around but mostly took more photos. The trees here are so massive. I need 3-4 of me to wrap my arms around them. Wow! I really didn't know they were this big. It is just beautiful!
We contiuned driving along the Columbia River again, still gorgeous and then bam, there is Multnomah Falls. Wow!! It is so tall and beautful! The parking was crazy, 100's of cars. We walked over and got photos and went into the gift shop for our magnets and books. It was way too busy. Not sure if that's normal or not...it is a Saturday so maybe it is normally that busy.
We left Multnomah Falls on the highway not realizing that we could have stayed on the little side road to go see the rest of the waterfalls in the area. So we basically did a big loop. The next waterfall we hiked was Latourell Falls. I guess this is going to be a common theme of how green things are and big the trees are. I don't think I'll get used to the many variety of green color there is.....from a briliant flurecent green to dark green, all near this waterfall. It was so neat. It was a beautful hike and not many people at all, which was terrific! I also can't get over the variety of green plants as well. The ferns are stunning and remind me so much of my New Zealand.
We stopped at Shepperd's Dell and a few other nameless small waterfalls on our way to Bridal Veil Falls. We hiked down to it and it was such a gorgeous hike. I can't get over the moss that covers everything! The streams and creeks and the sunlight that sometimes pierces throught the trees....words cannot describe the beauty....or at least I'm having a hard time finding them. Again, my heart is just so full of gratitude to Heavenly Father for the beauty ALL around!!!
Once we got back to the car, we made a plan to drive into Portland to eat and find a place to sleep. We ended up randlomly finding the 'food truck' block. We parked and got out and walked the block a few times before settling on what to eat. We got THE best bucklava I've ever had, Quique got Asian food and I got a burrito.....too many delicious choices!
We found a hotel that was on the way north to get closer to tomorrow's destinations. It was ran by a cute Indian couple that when you walked in you can smell the spice and curry. Which also reminded me of my mission and the families that we were teaching English to and all the curry and naan they would feed us....mmmmm.
Today was a dream come true. Beautiful in everyway possible and ways I didn't know could exist. My heart is full!
