Portland, Columbia River Gorge and Mount St. Helen's

We started the day with our own city bike tour around the waterfront and downtown area of Portland, OR.  The city is very bicycle friendly.  The Williamette River flows along Portland and the city as taken full advantage by locating parks, restaurants and other buildings along the waterfront and it's many bridges. 

We left Portland and headed for the Columbia River Gorge area and visited many waterfalls including the Multnomah Falls which is the fifth highest waterfalls in the United States.  We stopped at Vista House Crown Point to view an overlook of the gorge area.

Our next stop was North to Mount St. Helen's Monument National Park.  It was a 52 mile one way drive from the interstate into the park along a windy road with beautiful views of the Cascade Mountain range.  We visited the Johnston Observatory Center which faces the North rim of Mt. St. Helen's.  We watched a movie on the events which lead to the eruption of the volcano and its aftermath.  We listened to a ranger talk about the changes which have occurred since the volcano erupted. 

The weather throughout the day was off and on rain.  At Mt. St. Helen's the low cloud ceiling created an eerie fog which made driving difficult at times.  We felt we were on top of the world at 4000 feet elevation with nothing but some of the most beautiful mountains we have seen surrounding us. 

We left the park and drove to Seattle where we will be spending the night.

Pictures can be seen at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/201162ColumbiaRiverGorgeAndStHelens?authkey=Gv1sRgCNfVud7D08yuiwE&feat=directlink

More later .  . .