Spotlight on: The Columbia Gorge Hotel, the Columbia River Highway and a Short Geological History of the Area

Columbia Gorge Hotel

We arrived at the Columbia Gorge Hotel on July 25 and left on July 27. It is a beautiful historic hotel in Hood River, Oregon and it is situated right on the Columbia River. The hotel was originally developed in 1904, by a pioneer named Bobby Rand and in 1920 Rand sold it to Simon Benson who had helped complete the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway, about 30 miles down the road from the hotel. We had been on the scenic highway before: it essentially parallels Highway 84 to Portland.  If you are ever traveling that stretch of highway, you MUST take the scenic divergence. It is well worth it! We do recommend though, that you try to avoid a weekend during prime time (morning and early afternoon) as there is limited parking to stop and see the various falls. This stretch of gorgeous road (pun intended) consists of leafy tree-lined road alongside which are a series of waterfalls. It has been claimed that the most beautiful time of year to visit is in the spring when the waterfalls are replete with winter run-off from mountain snows and the banks are replete with wild flowers. We have been there twice and not in the spring, but I can attest that it is still lovely, whenever you decide to visit. 

The geologic history of the gorge itself is absolutely fascinating and if you decide to delve into it, you will be amazed by the magnitude of the volume of water from ice-melt that carved out the entire gorge in a relatively short period of time, unlike the Grand Canyon which was formed over many years.

There is a sign board along Highway 200 , “Glacial Lake Missoula and the Floods That Shaped the Northwest”, which we stopped and read on our way OUT of Coeur D'Alene as we were headed towards Whitefish, Montana, which pictorially depicts and describes what happened geologically to

form the gorge and the rivers of the area. These were catastrophic physical events in Earth’s history.  On the signboard: “Glaciers advanced and retreated a dozen times or more, damming Lake Missoula, bursting with gargantuan force, flooding areas miles away, shaping today’s landscape in Idaho, Washington and Oregon”. It also stated: “The force of energy unleashed was hundreds of times the explosive energy of Mt. St. Helens.” Also, Glacial ice above lake level (was as) tall as a 200 story building above lake level, rose 4 times as tall as Seattle’s  605 ft. Space Needle, (and the) total depth of glacial ice may have exceeded 3,500 feet when reaching to the lake’s rock bed.”

Our waterfall viewing drive along the scenic highway will be better described in the next blog post. Here, I am setting the geological scene.

So Simon Benson, who was originally born in Norway, had had work as a farm hand, and later worked in sawmills and logging camps. Ultimately the logging industry allowed him to build his fortune. His philanthropy included financially supporting the construction of the scenic route mentioned above and ensuring that the land was designated public park land. He also owned the Columbia Gorge Hotel and intended for it to be an opulent place to stay for travelers who had completed the scenic tour. The 208 foot “Wah Gwin Gwin” waterfall is on the hotel grounds. Famous people who have supposedly stayed there include President Roosevelt and Rudolph Valentino. During the depression, the hotel became a retirement home and this remained so until 1977 when it became a hotel again and was restored. “Simon’s Cliff House” is the hotel’s restaurant and the food is very good. It is a beautiful well appointed hotel and weddings and other events are often held there, especially outside in their beautiful gardens. There is also a spa.

But the Columbia Gorge Hotel has another facet to its history that is NOT mentioned on its website. It is reputed to be haunted. 

Having stayed in an exquisitely haunted castle in Wales and having taken part in ghost séances there, we were keen to learn more about the Gorge Hotel’s ghosts. We asked numerous staff people about the resident ghosts. Half of the people we asked said they had not worked there long enough to have any first hand knowledge of ghosts, but one employee who has been there a few years, was more than eager to tell us about the ghosts. One resident ghost is a man the hotel staff  have named “Oscar” and he likes to smoke pipes and cigars. He also wears a top hat. Guests have reported smelling the smoke even though the hotel has a no smoking policy throughout. Another ghost is a woman who is reported to move furniture in front of the door so outsiders cannot get into the room. But the employee also told us of the sounds of children playing above the 3^rd floor. On different occasions, guests have phoned the front desk to ask them to ask the guests on the 4^th floor to ask their children to be quieter. There are no guest rooms on the 4^th floor. That is the attic. In our short stay there we did not see or hear ghosts, but at one point, when I had my dowsing crystal out and was checking rooms in the 3^rd floor hallway, I got a very intense tingling up and down my spine outside one door. It was literally chilling. In Wales, they told us that this sensation occurred when ghosts attempt to attach to you and the tingling is their attempt to suck some energy from you. They try to enter from the back so you are less aware of them at first. I have found that stomping my feet and saying in a stern voice: “Stop that! I am queen of this realm and you have no power over me!”  Most ghosts are not that invasive, however and leave well enough alone but if you seek out what they wish for, they will communicate that to you. Most times, it is just being acknowledged. We have had several ghost visitations at home and one in particular, knocked the exact same books off of the exact same shelf upstairs in the kitchen and the family room for 3 days in a row at exactly 5:00 a.m. She just wanted to be acknowledged and after I lit a candle in the kitchen at 5:00 a.m. for 3 days in a row and acknowledged her for ½ hour each day, she stopped knocking books around. 

Ultimately we were a little sad to leave our ghosts, waterfalls and the fabulous food and people of this Hood River area, but read on as the next posting will describe our enjoyable drive around the “Fruit Loop Tour” where we visited the local growers and artisans of this area. 

Some links for more information on the above: The second link provides a very useful map.

http://columbiagorgehotel.com/

http://www.columbiariverhighway.com/historic_columbia_river_highway.pdf

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Washington/ColumbiaRiver/geo_history_gorge.html

http://www.historichotels.org/hotels-resorts/columbia-gorge-hotel/ghoststories.php

A Plethora of Pointy Mountains

We saw a play on our second day in Ashland. Isn't that what you are supposed to do there? After all, Ashland is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival offering 11 plays in 3 theaters. We have been here before and the quality of theater here is superb. We saw a matinee production of "Taming of the Shrew". The setting for this play is often varied in location and time but the play remains the same. It is one of my favorite Shakespearean plays. This version was set on a beach boardwalk. There is dispute about the meaning of this play and some think that Kate gets "tamed" at the end of the play but I disagree. I believe that Shakespeare portrays Kate as one of his strong woman characters (even though in his time all the female parts were played by men).



Pangea Meal

I have been asked to post more food photos so here goes: Before the play we found a nice little restaurant cafe called "Pangea" and had a wonderful lunch there. The food was tasty and really healthy. David and I each had a bowl of soup and we shared a sald of lettuce, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and other goodies. http://www.pangeaashland.com/

We ate dinner at our hotel that night and had a great meal there as well. I had a vegetarian entree which consisted of a black bean and basil croquette, carrot confit, roasted peanuts and  sesame roasted mushrooms. It was delicious. As we were eating dinner, we noticed a somewhat familiar

face at the table next to ours. David said: "That looks like Steven Seagall". We knew him when we lived in Japan the first time (1981-1984) and  he was the "sensei" (teacher) at an Aikido dojo there. We both had several lessons with him. Much later, we learned that he had gone to Hollywood and had become an actor in action films. Sitting at the table, he did not look as we remembered him, though that was many years ago. But once he and his group stood up and left the restaurant, walking right past us, we realized that it was him. http://stevenseagal.com/ 

But what of "pointy mountains"? 

The next day we began our trek from Ashland to Hood River. We did not take the direct route, but decided to go past Crater Lake and stop and see the sights there before driving onwards. Our route took us on Interstate 5 to Medford, where we got on route 62 to Crater Lake. From there, we took 138 to 97 and then 97 to 26. At Madras, we turned onto 35 and took that to Hood River.  

We started our journey at 8:30 in the morning and it was already 78 degrees outside. Route 62 took us past a row of car dealerships and on into country land with rolling hills carpeted with evergreen trees.This was where we saw our first Oregonian pointy mountain.





Unidentified Oregonian Pointy Mountain

I have no idea which one it was. We passed through Shady Grove, along the Rogue River, and into Joseph Steward State Park where we were treated to tree-lined road and cooler shade which was a nice respite from the ever increasing temperature. (Remember, we were in a convertible with the top down, driven by someone who had yet to commit to an upper limit temperature at which point the top could be raised and the air conditioner be turned on). This part of the journey was lovely as the Rogue River meandered in and out of view and we were enjoying the shade of the trees overhead while listening to The Allman Brothers' "Eat a Peach" .The music seemed oddly in tune with the metronome-like image of the dotted lines of the road racing by, keeping beat along the way, accompanied by the staccato of intense sunlight flashes through trees as we sped on through the forest. Almost abruptly, the forest came to and end and we found ourselves thrust into a sun blast of warmth accompanied by the stinging singing of hot weather cicadas.

By the time we got to Crater Lake it was hot, exposed,  and there was a distinct aroma of hot oil and rubber due to the recently re-paved road which was baking in the sun. Crater Lake is as impressive as it has been described in the tourist books. It is the deepest lake in the United States at a depth of 1932 feet.  Lake Tahoe comes in second at a depth of 1645 feet.The colors of Crater Lake are intense blues and greens. We stopped at various vantage points along the western side of the lake before continuing on our journey to Hood River. 

Crater Lake

Once we left Crater Lake, we took route 138 and then route 97 towards Bend. We stopped and ate lunch in Bend  at a little cafe, and by that time, the temperature had soared to almost 100 degrees. Our route after lunch, took us through the Warm Springs Reservation and there we saw some very interesting rock formations.

Warm Springs Rocks

We were also treated to our next views of the pointy mountains of Oregon. All in all, we saw the the Three Sisters range, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams in the distance and eventually a view of the magnificent Mt. Hood. Along this route, we also saw a sign that informed us that we were crossing the 45th parallel, which is halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. Mt. Hood continued to be in view for much of the rest of our journey into Hood River. We arrived at our hotel, The Columbia Gorge Hotel at 4:30 in the afternoon. Looking like the sun and wind blasted creatures we were, we checked into the hotel just in time for "Happy Hour" at the hotel bar. A drink and many glasses of water later, we were back to our old selves and ready to explore this old historical hotel. It has a reputation for being haunted which is something we would both enjoy learning more about.



Mt. Hood

But that evening, I was to dream less about ghosts and more about all the beautiful pointy mountains that Oregon has to offer.   

 

Palominos, Purple Mountains’ Majesty and a Little Prince

David and I (Sarah) are at the start of a new holiday adventure. This one takes us from the San Francisco Bay Area to Whitefish, Montana and back via some Canadian hot springs. We will be gone for about 3 weeks and it is a driving holiday: We are touring in David’s convertible. I call it “Little Sissy” because his license plate contains the letters “SSY”. This will be the first time we have house sitters and it is nice to know we don’t have to close up the house, stop the mail and papers or even wash all the dishes before leaving! As we leave here, the big news is about the birth of the new little prince in England. As yet, he has no name.

Sweet Hummingbird at Home in a Redwood Tree

As nice as traveling is, it is hard to leave our home. Last evening, as I sat on our beautiful deck watching the sunset and the hummingbirds I was reflecting on the abundance that Nature has to offer right here at home.

But we are adventouring (my word) and our trip will take us to Whitefish and Glacier Natural Park by way of Ashland and Hood River Oregon, Coeur D’Alene, Idaho and then Whitefish. I will be attending a professional nutrition symposium in Whitefish and we will also enjoy the activities and touring that has been planned for us there. Our trip back home will take us into Canada where we will visit several hot springs: Fairmont, Halcyon and Harrison, before we “hot tire” it back home. We have no set plans for the trip home but will probably try to get back as quickly as possible while taking into consideration the fact that we are both much closer to 60 than to 30 and marathon drives are just not so much fun anymore (were they ever?). We will be in a hurry to get home because our daughter, Holly, and her David have just received notice that their departure date for a year spent teaching in South Korea is the end of August.

Today’s journey takes us from the Bay Area to Ashland, Oregon via Route 5. I’ll continue this blog once we have reached Ashland….

Later. It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to reach Interstate 5 from home. We have taken this route before and I remembered that we would be seeing a lot of the hot central valley and miles and miles of farmland and mostly flat areas until after Redding, California, where we would start to climb up to high plateau area before descending a very long 6% grade hill into Ashland. It is summer now but we left a beautiful temperate day near the Bay.

My memory has served me well and within minutes of getting on Interstate 5, we felt as though we had opened a gigantic oven door and were stepping through it. The temperature soared to 90 and kept on going up. David has a rule about driving Little Sissy: “If you are in California, and it is not raining, you have to have the top down”. He says it is California State Law. He once tried to apply this rule to driving in other states, and we found ourselves driving into Bryce Canyon in November after a snowfall. It was gorgeous, but it was also negative 4 degrees that morning. I don’t know what the wind chill was but I imagine that if you drive in a convertible with the top down in that type of weather, you create your own wind chill!  David hastily decided to amend his rule to read “…you must have the top down unless it is below 32 degrees”. He has yet to amend his rule at the higher end of the temperature scale. So we kept going.

Purple Car

Friend and stellar acupuncturist Jodi Weitz told me that I must take interesting photos along this journey and post them here on this blog. She specifically asked for “big things that you find along these highways”, perhaps like the “World’s Largest Jackrabbit” which resides in Odessa, Texas. I think she is hoping for dinosaurs.  Sorry, Jodi. The best I could come up with after this days’ journey is this colorful car.

The scenery along the central valley part of Interstate 5 is not that spectacular. But we did see some beautiful palomino ponies grazing in a field along the highway. I love their golden coats and their white manes and tails. I believe that “Trigger”, the horse of Roy Rogers, was a palomino. Sadly though, we passed a very large truck right at the time I was going to take a photo of them. So no palomino photo. On the roasting ride into Redding, we saw some field workers, who must have been absolutely sweltering doing the backbreaking work they do, and we saw a crop duster drop his load on a field. I don’t like to think about what they are dumping on these fields of food so no crop dusting photo.

We decided to stop in Redding for lunch and stopped at the Black Bear Diner. This is a chain of 60 restaurants in 9 different states, mostly in California and Oregon.  The food is

very good, but in my opinion, they give you too much of it! I ordered a steak salad and was expecting a bowl, but got a large plate. Back home, I would eat about 1/5 of this! The 1/5 that I did eat was very good, though. The service was good and we appreciated the constant refills of our water glasses after our driving-through-a-furnace adventure. By the time we finished lunch, it was well over 100 degrees outside.

David decided it was time to close the car and turn on the air conditioner for the rest of the trip. It was over 100 degrees. The second half of the trip to Ashland had us climbing in our elevation. Fairly quickly, we reached 3000 feet above sea level. The scenery drastically changes and it took us into mountainous forested areas. We passed Lake Shasta and noted that the water level seemed quite low. We also got our first glimpses of Mt. Shasta in all its glory. The source I consulted puts it at 14,179 feet. It still had snow on it. It is a very spiritual place. Interstate 5 took us part way around the mountain and into the high plains. We were treated to different views of the mountain for quite a few miles. It well fits the description of America’s mountains in “America the Beautiful” as being an example of a purple mountain majesty, though the song was originally written atop Pikes Peak.

Mt. Hood

As we continued on our travels, I was changing CDs in the car in order to keep us in music for the entire day’s drive. I had made a number of CDs of various kinds of music that we like and our favorites are the ones Holly has made for us in the past. I started to think about how music fits or doesn’t fit the scenery we were driving through and it occurred to me that some of our favorites really work well while others do not. “Eagles” and “Doobie Brothers” fit well for this trip while “Enya” does not. At one point we were listening to an old Johnny Cash favorite, “A Boy Named Sue”.  This was one of his humorous songs and one of many examples of his great ability to tell a story.

Right before Ashland is a very big hill, about 7 miles long, with a 6% grade and many warnings about runaway trucks. At the beginning of the descent is a place where trucks can check their brakes. Several places during the descent are areas where “runaway trucks”, or trucks whose brakes have burned out, can pull off the road and onto an uphill ramp which has a big sand hill at the end. I don’t like hills like these which scare me. It is a dramatic way to arrive at Ashland though. The exits to the city are at the end of this long hill.

We pulled into Ashland late afternoon and realized that our journey had taken us about 5 ½ hours, not including the lunch stop. We checked into the Ashland Springs Hotel and discovered that we were in a “boutique” room which they explained to us, was like the boutique hotel rooms in France. We instantly realized that this means “small” ! It was a very small room but comfortable and very accessible to the entertainment district of Ashland. The view from our window was of one of the two majestic eagles that grace the hotel’s entryway.

We got settled, walked to the river area where there are outdoor restaurants which are a great place to stop for drinks. After having a drink, we found a restaurant that served Italian food. It was not one of our better dining experiences, but it was O.K. A better choice was the ice cream shop across from our hotel where we stopped for dessert. We turned in for the night and mused that our eagle friend was keeping watch for us. The evening news informed us that the little English Prince still did not have a name. I mused that whatever name(s) they picked, he will NOT be a boy named Sue.