First, a few Photos of scenes along the way…
Today this section is dedicated to the bridges and Dams along the Columbia River. Starting at our campsite in Umatilla, and the McNary Dam and Umatilla Bridge, we passed the John Day Dam, the Sam Hill Memorial Bridge, the Oregon Trunk Rail Bridge, the Dalles Dam, the Dalles Bridge, the Hood River Bridge, the Bridge of the Gods and the Bonneville Dam.
As planned, we dawdled in the morning waiting to arrive at the McNary Dam Visitors Center to open at 9AM. We arrived a bit early and even though no one was visible inside, we tried the front door – unlocked! We then looked to the front desk and around the entry area for someone to answer questions. There was no one.
It turns out for the 1/2 hour we spent looking over this fine visitors center, we never saw another visitor or an employee. There was a phone at the front desk with an extension you could call with a question, but we discovered that most of our questions were answered so we did not need to try anything that extreme.
For example, as we had seen what looked like a waterpark slide the night before, Scott speculated that the fish used it to go downstream. Turns out this was right for the adult fish – juveniles took a less thrilling ride. We also learned that the reason for these fish slides is that15% of fish that go through the power generation turbines were killed – I guess that was too high for the Corps of Engineers – particularly since many of the fish had to go through 3 or 4 dams to get to the sea.
We had carefully planned to take a cruise on “The Sternwheeler” on the Columbia River, and we calculated that our biggest problem would be parking there. Tom emailed ahead of time for parking advice, and he received an email while we were on the road that there would be “plenty of space” for our RV and Jeep. We arrived about an hour before cruise time and discovered a lot that was maybe 20% full.
We ate leftovers in Khan, Scott took a too-short nap, then it was time for our cruise. The ship could hold either 500 people (what the captain said,) or 599 people (what the website said.) It alternates going upriver and downriver, each leg taking a bit over an hour. When you get on you can ride as long as you want. While waiting for the cruise to start, Scott made a new friend.
This gets to the benefit of this time of year. The weather turned out to be gorgeous – right around 80 degrees F with a thin cloud cover. There were maybe 40 people on the first leg upriver, and 30 on the second leg downriver. The captain – halfway on the first leg – invited -passengers to join him in the wheelhouse. When Tom and Scott did this, we found he was inviting passengers to steer the boat, which both Tom and Scott did for a while (Scott for maybe 10 minutes.) It was thrilling to steer a ship this large, but, as the captain said, it was a big river (implying it would be hard to hit anything).
We had speculated that the ship’s propulsion was through props and thrusters, particularly when we saw how tightly it turned out of the dock. We figured the paddlewheel was freewheeling and for show. However, it was a diesel-electric, with two 500KW Caterpillar gensets turning electric motors that moved the paddle wheel, which was the only propulsion. The tight steering was due to TWO sets of rudders – one in front of the paddles, and one behind. The captain’s narration of the trip was excellent, and we learned quite a bit.
After leaving this experience we had some time before we arrived at our campsite, and had another interesting experience with Johnny Law. We had been told that the Bonneville Dam – where our second leg of the Sternwheeler tour turned around – had great fish viewing. So Scott suggested that we try and check that out at their visitors center. However, that required us to pass through a security gate.
We were asked the standard questions – any guns? Any drones? We assured them that we did not (our drone was safely tucked away and we knew better than do deploy it at such a location.) As the first security guard was waving us through, a second rushed up to announce that the swing gate ahead was being opened to allow a ship to pass through.
How long would this take? 30-40 minutes – and the visitors center was closing in an hour. Time to bail. But – we couldn’t back up! The road ahead was narrow. And there was no place to turn around!
The second security guard said that there was a closed and locked location ahead where we could turn around. He got his personal vehicle, lead us there, moved other traffic out of the way, unlocked and opened the gate, and allowed us to turn around. The security guards assured us that we could check out the fish hatchery, which we proceeded to do. US Army Corps of Engineers contractors did us a solid – far above and beyond!
The Bonneville Fish Hatchery – established in 1909 and one of the largest in the world (Scott thinks) was interesting. We found a brochure and helped guide other tourist to find “Herman the Sturgeon,” a huge sturgeon over 10 feet long and a highlight of the hatchery. We saw lots of other small and large fish. Then we moved on.
Our original plan was to stop and leave Khan at the Sandy Riverfront RV Resort, eat dinner, and then see a few other nearby sights. But Scott was exhausted watching Tom do all the work. So we found a nearby restaurant in Troutdale, the Troutdale Burrito Shop, and got excellent Burritos (though we discovered after ordering Burritos that they had plenty of other options.)
Then blog and bed. The nearby sights will have to wait until tomorrow.