Latourell Falls, Shepperd's Dell, Crown Point (3/7/14)

At the prompting of my boss, I took off Friday for some R&R after a difficult week. Dad also cleared his schedule, and we headed to the Gorge.

It was raining hard in the morning so we pushed back our departure time to 10 a.m. The rain stopped, the sky cleared and we had a perfect, beautiful day!

Neither of us had been hiking recently, so we chose a flat, short hike to break in our trail legs: Latourell Falls. We'd never been there, so it was extra fun to explore someplace new.

See - SUN!

We took Interstate 84 to the Bridal Veil exit and then turned right on the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway. It's just a couple miles down on the left. It's a state park (Guy W. Talbot State Park), so there was a great parking lot, picnic area, bathroom, informational signs, drinking fountain and garbage/recycling. Oh, and no fee at this trail head.

With all the recent rain, the falls were running high!

First trillium we'd seen all year:

We did the whole loop, ending up at the bottom of Lower Latourell Falls:

It was a gorgeous area and a nice, pleasant, easy hike.

One sign talked about nearby Shepperd's Dell State Natural Area, so we drove back a mile or so to check it out. There was a short trail down from the highway that ended at this:

The water was so high that it was flowing onto the platform:

We decided to drive back on the old highway and check out Crown Point. We'd never been there either and didn't know you can actually go inside Vista House!

Look at that view:

Crown Point is known for it's foul weather, but it was warm and sunny and without even a trace of wind.

It was a wonderful day to relax and enjoy nature and hang out with my dad. We also made plans to do weekly (hopefully!) adventures over the summer. Can't wait to get started :)