PORTLAND:

Upper Latourell Falls

I hate beautiful waterfalls. Said no one ever! It's been 8 days into our Portland adventure and we headed back into the Columbia River Gorge to Latourell falls. The base of the falls is easily accessed from the path to the right. However, we were more in the hiking mood and took the 2.5 mile loop on the left side. There is an elevation gain of approximately 600-700 ft in quite a short period of time. But the rigorous climb was short lived and completely worth it. The trail led to the very top of the 250 ft falls, and if you were brave you could literally stand at the top of the falls. This was way to nerve-racking for me. I prefer solid ground.

We continued on to the Upper Latourell Falls at the very peak of the hike. This is a smaller 125 ft water fall with a gorgeous curtain-like section of the falls at the top. It was difficult to capture the magic with my phone camera, as most things are in nature. The real thing is always better anyways.

Latourell Falls

On the way down, we came across what may have been a Thamnophis elegans elegans, also known as a Mountain garter snake. He/She had an aqua blue stripe down its back but otherwise was dark gray/black. It was curled up but looked to be 2-3 ft long.

The trail looped down to the very base of the Latourell falls. If you ever want to feel small, stand next to these falls! The water drops straight down off of a cliff made out of basalt rock. This rock and its texture was formed by slow cooling lava flows. As the lava contracts with cooling, cracks form cutting the rock into polygonal columns. The perfect cuts in the rock may appear man-made but are 100% naturally formed. Both the Upper and Lower Latourell falls demonstrate this phenomenon. And by standing at the base of the falls you are standing at a point were the lava came to a halt.

Heavenly Donuts

On the way home we stopped by our first Portland donut shop at Heavenly Donuts. It's hard to believe we spent 8 days in Portland and have not had a Portland donut! When you grow up only eating Dunkin Donuts, it is crazy to think there is 14 competitive donut shops in Portland. And no Dunkin! Each shop has a variety of kinds: mini, old-fashioned, puffed, and cake donuts. Got to try them all!

After snacking on donuts all afternoon, we headed to Burgerville to grab dinner. I am already a huge fan. The spicy Anasazi bean burger was delicious! Definitely in my top 3 veggie burgers ever eaten. I was super impressed to see a variety of salads and fish options on the menu. The company uses local ingredients and sustainable methods such as recycling cooking oil into biodiesel. And just like a fancy sit down restaurant, the menu changes with what ingredients are in season! Take that fast food restaurants everywhere.