Driving the Great Northwest - Off to Montana

Sorry this post is soooooo late!  I have been met with the challenge of Melanoma and it has set me back even more than I already am with my posts about our fantastic trip through the great northwest!  So I figured it's time to catch up a little bit more before I have some surgery and start treatments.

Let's go back in time a little bit to April 21, and put ourselves on the road leaving from Vancouver Washington and making our way to Billings Montana.  First stop, Missoula Montana.  Our route takes us through the magnificent "Columbia River Gorge".  I never tire of traveling this portion of I-84 that travels along the second largest river in North America. It is so beautiful with the waterfalls of Oregon on my right.......

 and the Columbia River on my left which creates the border between Oregon and Washington.

We arrived in Missoula just in time for dinner, so we decided to check out what "Historic Downtown Missoula" had to offer.  With a recommendation from a very nice lady we met while parking our car, we took the short walk to "The Iron Horse Brew Pub" located at 501 N. Higgins.  This place had a typical Western feel to it with it's wood beams and rustic decor.  They had a nice side patio, where of course we needed to be!  The food was nothing to exciting and the only thing I really have to comment on is the Sweet Potato fries!  Remember I had some great Sweet Potato fries at "Casa Nyranja" in Portland, and I was thinking that everyone made them that way.....WRONG!  These were so skinny, and quite flavorless.

Well it had been a long day so we headed back to our room at the "Mountain Valley Inn", which by the way is really within walking distance to Historic Downtown.  After a good nights sleep, and some breakfast in the lobby of our hotel, we were on the road again!

Next stop, Billings Montana!

Driving The Great Northwest - Waterfalls, Waterfalls and More Waterfalls

Okay, it's already April 10 and two days of rest is enough!

I'm not sure if you know this about me, but as much I as love lighthouses, I love waterfalls even more!  So today we headed for the "Columbia River Gorge" to explore and enjoy the waterfalls! 

We start towards the Gorge on I84 heading East, but decide to exit onto "Historic Route 30" which brings us to our first waterfall of the day!

Wahkeena Falls is a 242ft waterfall with a great trail that takes you to the base of the waterfall.

Our next stop is Multnomah Falls and here we take the 1.25 mile trail to the very top of the waterfall.

There are 11 switchbacks on the way to the top of this 620ft waterfall and on the way we have some amazing views of the Columbia River and Washington in the distance.

After we reach the top and have a look over the edge, we decide to continue on the trail that takes us along the upper part of the falls.

  

But as beautiful as this is, we need to get back down to the car and see some more waterfalls.  And within just about 10 minutes down the road is "Horsetail Falls".

Here you just park and walk across the street and you are feeling the mist of the water of this 176ft fall.

Our last waterfall of the day comes as a complete surprise as we were driving West on  Historic Route 30 on our way back to Vancouver.

Latourell Falls has a couple of great options for getting some great views of the 249ft fall.  We of course did both.  First the little walk of 0.1mile to the bottom where we could just look straight up at the fall.  Then we also took the little walk from the parking lot to the viewpoint.

Okay, back on the road to get home.  But then we end up with one more unexpected stop.  Built between 1916-1918, "Vista House" was built as a memorial to Oregon Pioneers.  This is a great place for unbelievable views of the Columbia River Gorge.  However the wind was blowing about 50 miles per hour up here, so we took a quick tour and some pictures and headed home.

 

Of course there are more pictures to see of all the waterfalls we saw today at "Where's Debbie".  Just click on the album Waterfalls.

Driving The Great Northwest - A Home Exchange in Vancouver Washington

It was so exciting for Stijn and I to plan a driving trip through the Northwest part of the United States and decide on some of the key places we wanted to visit and the things that we would want to do while on our trip.  During our planning we thought that it would be a great idea to see if we could do a home exchange somewhere in the area of Portland Oregon and stay awhile.  There is just so much to see and do in this area that it made sense to stay longer than just a few days.

I began searching on Home Exchange.com to see if I could find a place that would suit our needs and our dates.  After reading a few profiles I wrote an email to someone in Vancouver Washington and proposed a possible home exchange for April.

A couple of emails back and forth and April 8 through April 22 are the dates that we agreed upon for our exchange to Vancouver Washington.  Lucky for us, Terri was happy to do the exchange!  Vancouver is perfectly located just across the Columbia River from Portland Oregon.  Within just minutes or a few hours we can be in downtown Portland, on the Columbia Gorge hiking to waterfalls, shopping at Pikes Place Market in Seattle, or maybe doing a little snow skiing on Mt. Hood.  So many options!

So on April 1 we packed up the car, loaded our bikes on the back and started our trek north!

Washington State on Dwellable