Kelso, Washington – Big Trip 2019

Friday  23 August. –  Leaving for Portland, Oregon today and we had reservations at Columbia River RV, we pulled in about noon. We had a very upsetting experience at this park.  I am putting a big comment on Trip Advisor.  Needless to say, we couldn’t get away from Portland fast enough.  The manager, Mark, at Columbia River RV was the most horrible human being we have ever encountered.  We just left.  If you want more information on why not to stay here, email me at trumstravels@gmail.com  .

We left there and honestly I just wanted to get OUT of Portland.  We drove to Kelso, Washington State and got a spot at BrookHollow RV park in Kelso.  The girl at the office was super nice and we were given a nice site, #40.

After that we stopped at Ashtown Brewery and shared a taster tray but we didn’t care for it.  Then to the Mill City Grill for dinner!  Great spot.

 

Saturday 24 August  –  sunny. We are off to Mount Saint Helens. We drove straight to Johnstone Ridge Observatory. We went inside and watched two movies and listened to a Park Ranger talk about Mount Saint Helens and the day she erupted. He was such a good speaker. We have always enjoyed listening to the Park Rangers in the States.   They are all very well spoken and they really know their history and facts.

 

We went all through the exhibits in the museum and we did walk up to the Eruption Trail Lookout. There was a huge cloud over the top of the mountain so we couldn’t see it all. Such a sad place and yet such an interesting place. We stopped at Coldwater Lake and also the Forest Learning Center and there was some Sky event going on so we looked around a bit and then we left.

We walked the Hummocks  trail which was 2.4 miles, a lot of it uphill.

As were driving through the Park, we noticed ahead of us, this mountain of trees.  Both of us thought our vision was blurry.  We actually stopped the truck,  got out and took pictures.  This was one of the weirdest things we ever saw!  I did nothing to this photo, the only editing I did was a bit of cropping.  So weird.

 

Then onto Five Don’s Brewery which is only open Wednesdays and Saturdays. What a great place, one of my favourite places we have stopped at, as far as breweries go. They had great beer and we sat at the bar and stayed three hours or more talking to the people there. We both really enjoyed it. If I lived here I’d be a regular. Their lager was really good. It must’ve been cause I had three glasses.

Sunday 25 August  –   Sunny.  We left for Columbia Gorge. We drove and drove and really it’s not a gorge just a big River with the road running beside it. We did do a hike to the Lower Falls and Upper Falls. It was all uphill to the Upper Falls and all downhill coming back. Was a pretty nice walk. We did a loop which was a couple of miles and maybe two hours of hiking.

We stopped here and there along the way. We also stopped at Horsetail Falls and Multnomah Falls.

 

There was a little town called Vancouver and we stopped there on the way home.  Had some okay beer at the Fort site brewery.   We sat at the bar playing cribbage.

 

Then onto Ghost Runners brewery, the beer was not great we shared a hummus plate and a flight. We didn’t care for the place, the food or the beer.

 

Monday 26 August. – We went to the south side of Mount Saint Helens Park today. It’s about an hour drive. We went straight to Ape Caves. 300,000 years ago, a lava flow went through here and then when the cold came, it  froze and cracked a big sinkhole  with a tunnel. The tunnel was ¾  mile each way to walk. And it’s dark.  So very dark.   You are told to bring flashlights or you can rent lanterns there. We brought our own.

It was 42 Fahrenheit inside the cave. It follows the terrain of the area so it’s only 50 to 60 feet down. Lots of water dripped on us. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to walk to the end.

There is also a second cave, we didn’t do that cave because it’s three hours to do and has 27 breakdowns to climb over.

We left there we went to Lava Canyon and we did a hike to the canyon. We wanted to go across a suspension bridge as the trail loops back, but it was closed and there was no notifications we had to come back the way we went.  So we only did about 2 miles or so.

Off to Olympia, Washington…………..