Day 11
The highway takes you through the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. The northern part of the reservation is wooded but slowly changes to desert. Other than the mountains in the background the view is pretty flat and barren. We turned on the radio and listened to Native American music, some of the songs were sung in their native language as well as English. Around 3 pm we drove into the town of Warm Springs. Signs along the highway directed travelers to the Museum of Warm Springs which the community is quite proud of. We stopped and looked around the giftshop and decided we didn't have enough time to go through the museum. The town was a mixture of the modenn (ie the museum, restaurants and the Kah-Nee-Ta Resort, Indian Head Casino) and the more typical scenes we've seen on other reservations. We continued on through the town of Madras, which had a lot services including farm equipment dealers and lots of Mexican Restaurant.
The
Ten Eyck Road took us to the town of Sandy. This was one of the larger towns
in the area with lots of services. We drove to the Jonsrud Viewpoint which overlooked
a valley and gave you a great view of the mountains to the east. A plaque explained
that this land had been donated by the Jonsrud family and the house across the
street had been built by this family over 70 years ago. On our way out of town
we stopped at the visitor's center behind City Hall but unfortunately they were
closed. Just below these buildings was Meining Memorial Park. This park was
set in a valley which was quite shady. It was designed for the blind with scented
herbs and textured plants. We decided to take Highway 26 east (the Mount Hood
Highway). The highway follows the Barlow road built in 1845 as alternative for
travellers wanting to avoid the rapids on the Columbia River. Mt. Hood, the
tallest mountain in Oregon can be seen on the northern side of the mountain.
We stopped at the Mount Hood Ranger Station in Brightwood. The highway passes
several small communities--Wildwood, Wemme, Zigzag, Rhododendron. Several campgrounds
and hiking trails can be found along this highway as well. Just before Barlow
Pass the highway turns south.
We drove along the Sandy River, past homes that looked like they did back in the '50's with equally quaint restaurants, stores and taverns with names like Jack's, Tad's Chicken 'n Dumplings and Tippy Canoes. We passed Dabney State Park. a large, day-use park along the Sandy River. We were now on the Gordon Creek Road driving past the Oxbow County Park, another large park. This road was quite windy and hilly. The scenery was all green with lots of shadows, when the trees would cover the sunlightt. Somehow we ended up on Bull Run Road and then Waterworks Road which took us to Roslyn Lake. This was a cute little lake. We parked to look around and about a dozen ducks and geese started squaking and heading our way. They were obviously used to being hand fed and were quite upset that we didn't bring them any food. Across the lake was a clearing with a large squre-shaped dock. We took a couple roads around the lake hoping to figure out a way to get over there but never did.
PORTLAND
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The folowing is a continuation of this trip as I came back a month later to drive south down the coast and then drive up north on I5 and stop at the small towns near the highway. I would leave Portland start driving west on highway 30. I reached the little town of Old St Helens around 5:00 as would get off the highway and go to the old part of town. You will find a marina, park museum and many little small shops here. There were also restrooms that had showers near the marina here as I sat in the park and ate a subsandwich for dinner. 
There are many small communities along the Columbia river going west. I woudl drive past Columbia City and Prescott which are both next tothe river. As you pass Prescott there is also a nuclear plant near the columbia river. You will next pass thru Rainier which I suggest the you don't go over the town speed limit as they were pulling cars over within the town jureddiction for going 10 miles over the limit. I eventually come to another town called Clatskaine where they were having a Bluegrass festival with a small set of rides in town for the kids. The audience looked like retired people who had brought their mobile homes for the weekend . Everybody was having a good time as a quintet played on a flatbed of a trailier truck stayed for about thirty minutes before continuing on. The locals in town seemed to know everybody just by listening to conversations on the street as people passed by each other.
I drove for another half hour on highway 30 before crossing the John Day River that also had some houseboats on itoming into Astoria. 
It looked like a nice settingas they wer not real close together and some also had fishing boats next to the house boats. I then drove for about five minutes before reaching Astoria right at sundown. The sunsets are fantastic here as you see the sun go over the horizon with a pink/orange color to it tonight. Astoria is an old town as it is situated right on the inlet of the Columbia river going into the Pacific ocean. Lewis and Clark arrived here in 1805 from the Columbia River. We have been here before during the day and taken the kids to interesting museums and Forts in the town. It is agood p;ace to go foa a family outing. After sunset I needed to find somthing to do for the evening. I finally decided to go to the Merrytime bar and watch the Seahawk football game as there was not much to do in town. After the game I drove out towards the water and finally parked out near Ft. St Johns park in a parking lot near the ocean around 12:00..
550 miles today
2600 miles Total in 6 days