Tag Archives: Oregon

Multnomah Falls

Posted on by

I visited Multnomah Falls today while on a cruise of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. I have seen this waterfall in I don’t know how many pictures because it is rather photogenic, especially with the foot bridge that crosses in front of the upper portion of it. The area around the falls are rather pretty and what most people generally think of with the northwest. It is a 0.2 mile hike up from the first viewing area to the footbridge and not too bad of a hike.

Classic photo of Multnomah Falls with the footbridge across it in frame

Pool at upper portion

Upper falls

Fireweed near falls

Short stream between upper and lower waterfalls

View from pedestrian bridge of creek fall terminates into and viewing platform with Columbia River in background

Pendleton Underground

Posted on by

As part of the cruise of the Columbia and Snake Rivers that I am on, today some of us went on an excursion to Pendleton, Oregon. The main purpose of the excursion was to tour an underground portion of Pendleton. They started building portions of the underground in the 1800s. Underground tunnels allowed them to safely carry gold and other goods from one location to another to prevent theft. Later many bars were below ground as well as businesses. We were shown an area where a Chinese man had a thriving business washing and ironing people’s laundry. There was an old shed of sorts that was well insulated to store ice for an ice cream parlor above. There was also of course the expected speak easy used during Prohibition.

I’ve taken a few underground tours before, similar to this one. This one felt somewhat disjointed. It covered numerous time periods. They also had some examples of things that weren’t actually underground, but I guess they needed to fill the area, and also show a little above ground history. However, it got somewhat confusing understanding what had and had not actually been underground.

Bar

Example of living area

Example of sleeping area and equipment used for trade

Groundwater pump and icemaking area used by well known butchers

Speak easy with moth balls hanging from ceiling to overpower smell of alcohol