Dalles Mountain Road

We celebrated our wedding annivesary today with a ride up the Columbia river to The Dalles, a town perfect for a day trip. It was a wet day, even on the East side of the Cascade Mountains, where it is normally much drier. One of our favorite spots that way is across the Columbia on Washington side, called Dalles Mountain Road. It's marked "Primitive Road", and climbs way above the Columbia River Gorge, providing beautiful vistas all around. Meadowlarks nest there in the summer and wildflower fields abound. Today was too early for all that. John picked pussywillows for me in the pouring rain, I kept trying to take some pictures. The willow bushes were pretty, nestled amidst the old volcanic rock formations.