Oregon, Tillamook - Wednesday, August 15, 2018 - Scenic Drive to Tillamook

We are going to be traveling today over I-84.  We will have the Mt. Hood National Forest on one side and the Columbia River which separates Oregon from Washington on the other.  This route is supposed to be one of America’s most spectacular road trips according to a coffee table book I’ve had for a long time called The Most Scenic Drives in America by Reader’s Digest.  The drive would have been much more scenic without the smoke haze that covered most of the area.

When we left Boardman, Greg commented that there were windmills on the mountains that might have dispersed the smoke if they had been running.  We found out why they weren’t running, they were in an area that burned last year.  The mountain was blackened for miles.

I-84 is also part of the Lewis and Clark trail.

The mountains in this section are moss covered (pardon the dirty windshield we are stopping for fuel soon and will take care of that).

You can see Washington at the other end of the bridge.  Stopping for fuel.

Window is clean but it is still smoky.

The Dalles dam is pretty impressive.  If we were in the Jeep we might have done a little more exploring here.

Some scenery along the way.

See the railroad tunnel on the left?

Great scenery is everywhere.

We’ve seen some barges in addition to this tugboat.

Portland, what can I say, I cringe when we get into cities.  As always, Greg maneuvered us through without incident.

At this point we have lost the river view, but the scenery is still good.

We’ll check this out at a later time.

Seriously?

Have you ever heard of a tsunami hitting Oregon?  Being the retired safety person I am, I read the complete booklet they gave us at the campground when we checked in.  It stated that these tsunamis would be triggered by earthquakes.  They could either be “distant” allowing about a 4 hour warning or “local” allowing only a 15 to 20 minute window to get to higher ground for safety, which it advised you do on foot.  If you need help evacuating you are advised to “tie something white to the front door knob.  Make it large enough to be seen from the street.  If the emergency is a distant tsunami, then help may arrive.  In the event of a local tsunami, it is unlikely that anyone will help you, so be prepared”. At least we know where we stand.  I wonder if people here have to have tsunami insurance?