Waterfalls in Oregon

After chatting with Paul yesterday about life goals and whatnot, I've decided to revive this blog for our miscellaneous travels. We both really enjoy traveling and thinking about traveling, so it's nice to keep a record of where we've been that we can review when we are stuck in dreary Pittsburgh.

Right now, we are in Oregon. I have a conference that starts Wednesday, so we came out a few days early for some sightseeing. Yesterday, we rented a car (a Subaru Forester - nice car!) and drove to the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area to see some waterfalls. We stopped first at Latourell falls:

We hiked there for a bit - a nice loop trail that went up and over the falls - and enjoyed the moss-covered flora:

It's clear that Portland is very moist. Moss is everywhere, even growing on the barriers in the middle of the highway. I didn't manage to snap a photo of that though - too busy speeding along in the Subaru.

Then we drove on to Wahkeena Falls where we hiked up many switchbacks to the top and then along a trail that took us to Multnomah Falls. It got pretty rainy at points, so we got rather damp. Luckily we had thought to pack our rain jackets. Overall, it was a good few hours of hiking, which is just what I had been hoping to accomplish on this trip. Multnomah is pretty epic - a very tall waterfall:

By the time we reached Multnomah, we were very hungry. We'd only had a muffin and a scone for breakfast, and it was about 4pm. Multnomah is reasonably touristy, so they had food for sale. We had our hearts set on big dinners, so we bought some toasted (read: sugary) pecans and a large mocha coffee to share. Maybe not the best thing to eat on such empty stomachs, but wow, did those taste amazing. Then we drove another half hour to Full Sail Brewing Company for some beer and burgers.

I'm currently reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and there was nothing I wanted more than a long day's hike followed by a large meal. And I got it. But now I want another. :)

Three Trains, a Bus, and a Boat

That's what it took us to get to Hallstatt.  Normally, it would be two trains and a boat, but flooding has caused some problems in the area.  The train tracks from Stainach Irdning to Hallstatt aren't doing so well, so the train stops, you board a bus, travel past Hallstatt, and then get on a train to go back to Hallstatt.  Then, you take a boat (the Stefanie) across the water to Hallstatt itself.

Additionally, a river that runs through town decided to change directions the week before our arrival.  Switzerland responded by sending in the army to help sort things out.  The river was back to its usual course by the time we got there, but crews were still working on cleanup and repair.  Also, we discovered that a bridge had washed downriver into the lake:

Sorry, taken from a bus. That bridge belongs quite a ways upstream and not in the lake

So, what did we do in rainy, cold (50 degrees or so) Hallstatt?  A fair amount of hiding in our hotel, which was quite nice:

We took the short Rick Steves walking tour around town and were impressed by the trees growing along the buildings:

We visited the ice caves and saw... ice!

Along with about 30 eight-year-old Austrian schoolchildren.  Awesome.  The English speakers got to stay at the head of the group so the tour guide could tell us about the place before everyone else caught up.  Then she repeated the spiel in German.

We also toured the charnel house in Hallstatt, and by that, I mean we walked in and stared at all the skulls in this tiny room:

I felt kind of bad taking a picture (although the above is actually one that Paul took).  These are real skulls.  In Hallstatt, due to limited space, bodies stay in graves for only about 10-15 years, and then they are removed.  Previously, it was a practice to bleach the skulls in the sunlight for quite some time and then paint them with the person's name as well as with flowers, laurel leaves, or similar.  This practice has pretty much stopped, although I think people can still request it if they want.  The last person to do so was in about 1995.

We also went on a nice long walk on the day it didn't rain very much.  Austria really takes its walking paths seriously:

We enjoyed some lovely views:

That's Hallstatt nestled at the base of that hill.