Portland; Sunday, 31 March, 2024

I had a day tour booked which meant I had to get up relatively early, so of course this was the morning that I slept right through until my alarm went off just before 8am. A quick shower and breakfast later and I was ready to be picked up just before 9am to start on a journey deeper into Oregon to explore more of the local region.

The tour that I’d booked onto was titled Mount Hood Wine and Waterfalls Tour, and our first stop was to tick off the last on that list with a visit to the spectacular double drop Multnomah Falls located close to the Columbia River as the water cascades down the side of the gorge (albeit a very wide gorge). We spent about 30 minutes here before continuing on, and on the next leg of the journey the scene from the right hand side of the bus was a continuous procession of more waterfalls.

After a couple of quick photostops along the course of the Columbia River we then headed in land, starting the climb towards our final destination, but punctuated by a couple of stops to fulfil the middle item on the list – wine.

The region is home to a large number of vineyards producing a wide range of wines due to the varied climactic conditions that this part of the country experiences. Just a few miles apart one area gets over 100cm of rain a year whilst the next area only gets 20cm. Consequently a large number of vineyards and wineries exist, particularly on the slopes of Mount Hood and for the next part of the tour we visited two.

The first Winery – Cathedral Ridge, we visited for a traditional wine tasting session with a chose your own selection of six from their extensive selection, before moving onto the Grateful Vineyard where we stopped for a pizza lunch accompanied by the option of more wine tasting, or as the group opted for, just a single regular drink.

With the pizza gently sopping up the wine we staggered back to the minibus for the hour long drive up the side of Mount Hood to the Timberline Lodge, located 6,000 feet above sea level well above both the treeline and the snowline, with snow still very deep on the ground and the skiers and snowboards out in force.

The Lodge is only about halfway up to the peak of the stratovolcano, but with nothing else above it there are uninterrupted views up to the peak. The volcano last erupted in 1907 and is generally though to be dormant or possibly even extinct, though the guide reported – as we could see ourselves – that for the last few weeks there have been steam and smoke billowing out from a fumarole up on the peak (and noticeably different from the lose snow being blown off from the other side of the peak), so there’s always possible things might be hotting up again there!

We spent about 50 minutes up at the Lodge before it was time to start making our way back down to Portland, with the drive taking about 70 minutes – including a diversion through the town of Boring (now twinned with Dull in Scotland). I was dropped back outside my hotel where I was able to quickly freshen up and grab a bite to eat before heading back out again for my second tour of the day.

I’d booked onto an evening Ghost Walking tour through the streets of Old Portland. The tour does touch on the supernatural and spiritual aspects of the city’s history but there is also quite a focus on the more tangible history – that of the role the city streets, and underground tunnels, played in the human trafficking trade that existed in the city in the last couple of decades of the 19th century, whilst also exploring some of the older buildings still existing in the city.

The tour ended only a few blocks north of my hotel so I was able to quickly head back at the end of the tour to grab a quick drink in the bar before turning in for the night.