Day 9

I'm not sure how the days flew by so quickly, but today was our last day in Oregon.  We set out on one last sight-seeing adventure.  Wow, this state is beautiful.  I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said, "You sure don't see this in Kansas...."

We started with a quick stop at the Vista House to check out the scenery.  Again....amazing.

This is what it looks like from the very top.

And this (below) is what it looks like from the highway below.

See that little tiny rock-looking formation in the middle of the picture?  That is where we were.  That "rock" at the top is the Vista House.  Yet again another example of why it is good that I don't see ahead of time where we are actually going. I may have made them leave me at the bottom.

Next stop - Wahkeena Falls and Multnomah Falls. 

The ranger at Wahkeena Falls told us that it was bumper to bumper traffic for the 1/4 mile to Multnomah Falls, and it would be quicker for us to hike the 1/2 mile trail than to drive there.  We contemplated this for awhile and then decided to listen to his advice. 

The trail was not far from the road (just a lot higher up), and we could see that we were in fact moving at a faster pace than the traffic on the road down below us.  We were pretty proud of our ingenious decision to hike the trail and get to the falls quicker.  It  wasn't until the hike back that we realized that we had to drive on that EXACT SAME ROAD to get back on the highway to head for home. 

So much for being ingenious, but we did get some exercise.

And the kids got to see this great little cave on the trail.

The theme of the day...climb to high places.

Needless to say, it was gorgeous up there.

My brother and I ran down from the bridge to get a picture of the boys.  They look annoyed because this is about the 15th time we had them wave to the camera.

 And that's it.

No more Oregon.

Tomorrow we set out for an incredibly long day of driving to Salt Lake City.

I am guessing tomorrow's post (if there is one), will look something like this:

     We drove for hours and hours today.

     And we still weren't even close to our destination.

     Then we drove some more.

     All we heard was "Are we there yet???"

     And then we drove some more.

Can you tell I am looking forward to tomorrow?