Oregon 2007

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Columbia River Gorge		Latourell Falls
Bridal Veil Falls	Wahkeena Falls	Look who we found in Oregon! (Note)
Multnomah Falls
A wedding at Multnomah Falls	US Windsurfing National Racing Tour	Town of Hood River
Exceptionally good winds in this area	Up	and away!
Looks easy, huh?		Like a field of butterfly wings
Starting the race	Spanning narrowest part of gorge
Bonneville Dam (Note)	Fish ladders	Turbine out for repair
Power generating room	Turbine replaced in 2000	Bonneville Lock
Bonneville Lock Gate	Ready for our dune ride
	It seemed like it was steep!
Pacific Ocean at Shore Acres
Beautiful flowers!
Picking blueberries with Joy and Diana		Community theater in Coquille
Dr. Doolot's Dilemma		Dr. Doolot
	(Note)
		Poles to mark road for snow removal
	Harsh winds strip the trees.	Nutcracker

This picture was made while at one of the water falls along the Columbia Gorge. It shows Lois and I with friends from Houston that we ran into; they are part of our bunko group. We were just walking along and noticed them standing at the edge of the sidewalk. They were visiting Anne's sister that lives in the area. (Return)

Bonneville Dam was constructed in 1933 and was the first dam on the Columbia River. It was one of the first major projects of the WPA after the Great Depression and was to provide jobs and cheap electricity to the Northwest. It was originally built with 10 turbine generators and later they built another section across the river and added another 8 generators. The total output of the complex is 1050 megawatts. The completed structure has two generator sections, one large spillway, a lock system for allowing boat and barge traffic to pass the dam and a large system of fish ladders to allow the salmon to move up and down the river to reproduce. One of the pictures shows a turbine out for repairs and they are just now beginning to replace the turbine blades, etc. with a new design that are more efficient and cause less damage to fish that might flow through the turbine. Can you think of many places that are still running equipment that is about 74 years old. (Return)

Crater Lake is an amazing place. The blue water is different from anything you have ever seen. The water is so clear, that no light is reflected back until it has reach great depths and then only the blue is reflected. If you look right down at the edge it looks like a Caribbean shore. The lake sits in the top of a volcano that erupted 7,700 years ago. This area is just one of the many volcanos that were formed 400,000 years ago as the earth went through massive changes. This line of volcanos run from California to Washington, the most famous one if Mt. St. Helens. This mountain was formed by several volcanos that moved lava to the surface for thousands of years. All of this lava created a mountain, Mt. Mazama, that was 12,000 ft high. About 7,700 years ago, a great magma chamber began to form under the mountain. Magma is liquid rock, when it gets to the surface we call it lava. A weak place formed in the top of the mountain and the magma began to flow out in one of greatest eruptions known to man. It created a layer of ash that is over 50 feet deep around all the surrounding area for miles. The lave created the huge gray structure that is shown in the picture above. As the lava flowed out, the huge magma chamber below the mountain began to collaspe and the whole top of the mountain just collasped into the hole left by the magma chamber. When that event was over, just a couple of days time, it left a whole in the top of the mountain that is 6 miles wide and 4,000 ft. deep. The lake began to form as ice and snow collected there melted over thousands of years. Now, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the western hemispere at 1,943 ft deep. The lake does not have any streams that flow into it or out of it; it is a completely enclosed biological system. The area gets up to 44 ft. of snow each year and that makes up for any evaporation that goes on during the summer. The surface did freeze in 1949. (Return)

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