I thought I’d post more photos (and even videos!) of our Dalles Mountain Road trip. I’d like to make that drive again this year; after being cooped up for so long, it’d be wonderful to see those wildflowers again. So to whet my appetite, here goes. (We get our second Covid vaccinations in just five days, so more road trips would be fabulous…still staying safe and maintaining protocols, of course.)
We headed up the Columbia River Gorge, heading mauka (towards the mountains).
Train!!
Everything was so green, as it usually is in May. And another train came by!
We crossed the Columbia River at Hood River.
Hood River Bridge
I love it when we get to see tugboats and barges along the river.
We’re now heading mauka again towards Lyle, Washington. We’ve already crossed the Cascade Mountains.
Poppies along the road. Seeing them now I’m reminded of Michelle’s Poppy.
Soon we come to Lyle; from there we’ll head north on our journey.
Poppies were everywhere, which let us know that the wildflowers on Dalles Mountain Road would also be in full bloom.
Oh my gosh, check out this house!!
Nope. Nope. Nope. No way I’d live in a place this close to the edge. I bet they have a great view, though.
Now we’re driving up Centerville Road on our way to Dalles Mountain Road.
One of my very favorite Springtime flowers are these ones.
This poor old barn has definitely seen better days. Oh, the stories I bet it could tell!
Actually, there were two of them. The second one was in somewhat better shape. But not by much.
And here we go!
This was our first view from the road.
Blurry pīpī photo for AFK.
This was our old TryLook telling us where we were. She was named by a friend of mine from back home. Why TryLook? Because: “Eh, try look where you stay going! You wen miss da turn. Recalculating!” My icon was a bird, not a car. Of course.
Seeing the Lupine and Arrowhead Balsamroot blooming together always takes my breath away. The white flowers are Wild Phlox.
Lupine.
I’m not sure what wildflowers these ones are, but they sure are pretty! I wonder if it’s more Phlox.
A shot just for AFK. This one’s not blurry! Well, not much.
Pīpī relaxing among the wildflowers seems like a great way to end this chapter. I’ve got plenty more photos of our drive to share next time.
Oh, what a lovely drive! Thanks for sharing xooxo I was wondering how the Gorge was going to look after that massive fire. The wildflowers bring such joy, don’t they?
Mahalo nui! I have more photos of this drive. We took this drive before the Eagle Creek fire hit. There are still some burned places, but the green is slowly coming back. And yes, wildflowers make me happy!
I do love your explorations!
I’m interested too in the word mauka – it is perhaps related to the Māori word maunga, meaning mountain. Introducing oneself at the start of a speech, one might say (in Māori which unfortunately I don’t speak) My tribe (iwi) is such-and-such, my mountain is such-and-such, my river is such-and-such.
Thank you! Yes, the Maori and Hawaiian languages are very similar, like “aroha” and “aloha”. I know one song in Māori, but that’s all. I love how they introduce themselves! It gives such a sense of place and belonging, doesn’t it?
It certainly does. Land (whenua) and ancestral connections to it are very important. Sadly the first British colonisers didn’t know or care about this. In spite of recent efforts to compensate, there is still a lot of disconnection and some bad feeling.
Oh Moki-chan, mahaloz fo’ da pīpī pitchas! I miss road trips. Since the pandemic started, I don’t think I’ve been more than 20 miles from home (and that was for a drive-by graduation salute to a close friend’s daughter, otherwise we wouldn’t’ve even done THAT.
Your flower photos are gorgeous–I’m especially fond of lupines. And thanks to you, I learned what arrowhead balsamroot flowers look like. Thanks for letting us ride shotgun!
ʻAʻole pilikia, my sista. I miss road trips too. Twenty miles isn’t much, is it? The furthest we’ve been has been to Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. I didn’t drink my coffee until we were on our way home! I’ll keep doing road trip photos here; I’m finding all kine photos I’ve never posted before. Mahalo nui for riding shotgun all these years.