The very first hike we did when we moved to Oregon was the Eagle Creek Trail in the Columbia River Gorge. It was December and snowy and a bit on the brisk side. In fact, it looked just like this:
So this trip we stole away several hours on Monday afternoon and returned to the trail that started it all. Except this time it looked like this:
Mother nature was so generous to the Pacific Northwest. Mark and I have lived in various parts of the country and traveled to almost all of it, but in our humble opinions, nowhere holds a candle to the PNW for natural beauty. Sure, there are pockets of other areas around the US that are beautiful {Acadia, Yosemite, the Outer Banks, the Great Smoky Mountains on a crisp October afternoon}, but as a whole, the PNW takes the prize.
This trail ended up being much easier than I remember - it must be all those red blood cells I've accumulated living in Denver. It's all uphill but the air was rich and clean and it felt like a leisurely three hour stroll instead of a grueling climb.
For a good while we just sat next to the water, built ourselves a few cairns, and felt so grateful.
Then we booked it out of there to get back to Portland by four. Naima and Nico had gymnastics and as one of their many "aunts and uncles", we wanted to be back to cheer them on before dinner with more friends at 530.
Great hike. Really great day.
So this trip we stole away several hours on Monday afternoon and returned to the trail that started it all. Except this time it looked like this:
Mother nature was so generous to the Pacific Northwest. Mark and I have lived in various parts of the country and traveled to almost all of it, but in our humble opinions, nowhere holds a candle to the PNW for natural beauty. Sure, there are pockets of other areas around the US that are beautiful {Acadia, Yosemite, the Outer Banks, the Great Smoky Mountains on a crisp October afternoon}, but as a whole, the PNW takes the prize.
This trail ended up being much easier than I remember - it must be all those red blood cells I've accumulated living in Denver. It's all uphill but the air was rich and clean and it felt like a leisurely three hour stroll instead of a grueling climb.
For a good while we just sat next to the water, built ourselves a few cairns, and felt so grateful.
Then we booked it out of there to get back to Portland by four. Naima and Nico had gymnastics and as one of their many "aunts and uncles", we wanted to be back to cheer them on before dinner with more friends at 530.
Great hike. Really great day.
1 comment:
Terrific pictures, as usual. My favorite is the rocks in the river.
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