First, a few photos of scenes from along the way…

We had to wait for Scott to finish a business Teams call at 8:30AM, but left shortly afterwards for a ride in Polo for Vista House and various Falls (there are several along the Historic Columbia River Highway).

While there was lots of parking at Vista House and a few of the falls along the way, the falls we thought would be the most impressive – Bridal Veil Falls was a different story.  Turns out you can’t see much without hiking much further than Scott’s knees would allow.  Turns out you can get a bit closer to the higher and more spectacular Multnomah Falls if you drive on the Columbia River Parkway – which we were already on – than if you arrive on I-84.

However, when you arrive at the falls there is a minimum $20 parking fee on the privately-owned lot – even if you just stay a few minutes.  And there was a line at the kiosk to pay the $20.  Scott’s rebellious streak kicked in – we turned around and let the people behind us pay the fee – we were going to risk whatever they could do in 5-10 minutes of purloined parking.

After taking a few minutes to ponder the somewhat-obscured but very scenic falls, we returned to Polo and drove off without paying – and without obvious repercussions.  We let the outlaw mantle get to our heads…

At the next falls – WahKeena – we could not find any parking spaces, but there were a whole lot of perfectly good spots with no-parking signs.  Scott unwisely suggested we move one, park for a few minutes, and then return it.  What could go wrong.

As Tom backed Polo up for Scott to drag the sign out of the way, the parking attendant appeared from nowhere.  He accused Tom of almost hitting a pedestrian as he backed up, and of course chided Scott for moving the sign.  He also pointed to the overflow parking area with lots of parking.  Our chastised team apologized and relocated sheepishly.

After this sightseeing trip we returned to the campground, put the rig together by hitching Polo to Khan, and went in search of Diesel.  Our luck did not improve.

We passed the first station as it seemed their price was too high.  The second had a wait for an open lane, so we turned around and grazed a pine tree branch (that tree had it coming.)  Then we made it to a Loves and paid in cash to save 40 cents a gallon.  Finally, we got back on the road.

Next stop was Mt. Saint Helens.  We drove scenic Washington 505 and stopped at several viewpoints and visitors centers.  The most impressive privately-sponsored visitors center was the Weyerhaeuser Forestry Learning Center – lots of information on how much they lost in the 1980 eruption (39 railroad cars, for example) how they put over 1000 tree cutters and movers on removing the damaged but salvageable dead trees, and how sustainable tree harvesting helps everybody.

One more stop at Castle Lake Viewpoint with the best views of Mt. Saint Helens and on to our campsite in Toledo Washington, the Kemp Olsen Memorial Park .  It only has 12 sites, all of which are very large and nice, under very tall trees.  The only knock is that the one shower stall for the entire campsite is apparently out of order, and when it did work you had to feed it quarters.

A quick stop at Donna’s Place for a good dinner in a “city” with 640 or so people, then blog and bed.