Friday, August 16, 2019

Watefalls, Mountains, and TREES!

We woke up, packed up, and left the KOA around 9:30am. The driving scenery today was much more interesting. We saw a lot of the Columbia River and had views of Mount Hood.



We stopped and filled up with gas again late morning, $2.75/gallon, almost 23 gallons. Today our goal was to see Multonmah Falls, swim in the Lower Lewis River Falls, and end up at our reserved campsite at Eagle Cliff Camp. We didn't arrive at Multonmah Falls until 1:00pm though, which was later than we had hoped. On the plus side, we met up with friends! When Mary was 2 years old she attended a Montessori School for awhile and Kiran was her best friend from there. We hung out with them for several years, but when the girls were about 6 or 7, Kiran's family moved out to Oregon. It's been probably another 6 or 7 years since then, and I wasn't even sure how well they would remember being friends as toddlers. But it turns out they still get along great! And so did the rest of our families. It was nice to meet up with someone - traveling with friends is definitely more fun. If anyone is reading this and wants to plan a future adventure together, let me know! We want to go to ALL THE PLACES!

Mary and Kiran
Multnomah Falls was VERY busy. It was difficult to find a parking spot, and we almost gave up, but eventually one of the employees told us we could park in a spot that was designated for "tour buses and shuttles". So that's a win for the big van! Maybe we should get lettering on the side that says "TOUR BUS". Haha! Even though there was a lot of people, the falls were pretty impressive. They are 611 feet tall, with a 542 foot drop on the first tier, and a 69 foot drop on the second tier below the bridge. You can hike up to the bridge for a closer look.



View of the lower part of the falls from the bridge

Katy once again insisted on making a video and it does not disappoint. Turn up the volume!


You can continue on past the bridge to go all the way up to the top of the falls. We all started to go up together, but many in our party were not up for the challenge. It is a steep uphill climb all the way up and then back down. Joe and Joey continued on, and the rest of us went back to the base of the falls and hung out and ate food.




 
View from the top!
We stayed at Multonmah for about 3 hours and left around 4pm. There were lots of cool waterfalls nearby but unfortunately we don't have time on this trip to see everything. Would love to come back out here and see more of Oregon though! We didn't even get to go on the Oregon coast, and there are more Oregon friends to meet too! It was about a two hour drive to Eagle Cliff Campground and the Lower Lewis Falls. We decided to go to the campground first to set up our campsite to make sure that got done before dark. There was a delicious smelling pizza place at the campground that was aptly named "The Pizza Place" and we decided to order another hot dinner and have pizza. It was incredibly good. We all decided we were too tired for another waterfall and would rather hang out at the camp site for the evening. There was some kids at the site next door and they were having a good time playing together. Plus our campsite was AMAZING - probably my favorite so far on this trip!

Driving to our camp site - love this view!
This tree was right in our campsite. All four kids tried really hard but they could not reach all the way around it!
The trees here are amazing!
Our setup

View inside the tent. Two people fit inside easily. This is with camping mats and our new extra warm sleeping bags. Tonight is only supposed to be in the 50s, should be great weather!

Total Miles Traveled Today: 260
Total Miles Traveled on This Trip: 2854

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