Cottage Grove, Oregon

A charming city known for its covered bridges and murals.

Columbia River Gorge

The view from Chanticleer Point, overlooking the Columbia River Gorge, which is 80 miles long and up to 4,000 feet deep with the north canyon walls in Washington State and the south canyon walls in Oregon State. We routed our trip home to be able to spend a day exploring this very special National Scenic Area. It was overcast but the views were still spectacular.The interior of the Vista House, known as the "Jewel on the crown". This structure was built in 1917 at Crown Point with sweeping views of the gorge. The architecture is spectacular.
The exterior of the Vista House.
When you stop at Crown Point be sure to take time to notice the attention to detail and the craftsmanship of the Vista House and surrounding grounds.
There are seven waterfalls along the along the Historic Columbia River Highway. This one is Latourell Falls.
And this one is Wahkeena Falls.
A beautiful and architecturally stunning walking bridge crosses Multnomah Falls.
Betty and Lucy on the bridge.
Even the bridges on the roadway are great!
Horsetail Falls.

Roslyn, Washington aka Cicely, Alaska (Northern Exposure)

A special stop for those of us who remember the Northern Exposure TV show, which ran from 1990 to 1995 (yes, it was really that long ago...) The series was based in Cicely, Alaska but shot in the small Washington town of Roslyn. Each show started with a shot of this mural, which was modified to read "Roslyn's Cafe".

Ahh, the Brick -- you kind of expect to see Holling behind the bar and Shelly waiting on tables. We found out that the inside of the Brick was never used on the TV show. The story goes that CBS was only paying $100/day compensation to use the inside of buildings. At that time the real Brick was making about a $1000/day serving meals and libations. They weren't about to trade $1,000 for $100 so a sound stage was built in Redmond, Washington to recreate the interior of the Brick. Many of the old buildings had "squeaky floors" and were unusable for production, so many other sound stages were also built for various interior sequences. We were told that only shots that looked out through the windows and showed the town were filmed from inside the real buildings.
Yes, below is the original "Dr. Joel Fleischman" sign from the TV series. The owner of the store made an agreement with CBS that when the filming of the series was over, she would retain ownership of the window with the sign. The windows have since been replaced with new double-pane glass but the piece of the original window with the name has been preserved and is proudly displayed in its original location.
Roslyn is still a draw for Northern Exposure fans and Dr. Fleischman's office is now a gift shop (surprised?). If you look closely you can see Marilyn's desk beneath piles of t-shirts in the picture below.
If it has to do with Northern Exposure, they probably have it here. The gentleman behind the desk was a huge Northern Exposure fan and decided to move here about 9 years ago. He seems to have every episode memorized (there is a TV showing episodes of the series in the back of the store). He was a wealth of information about the town and provided us with a lot of background and a map showing where various houses were (Maggie's, Marilyn's, Ruth Ann's, Maurice's, etc.) and which locations were used in the filming (Ruth Ann's store, churches, lots, etc)
Except for the new furnishings, the walls were all left as they were in the show, sagging wall paper, faded paint and all.

Joel's office still looks the same from the outside.As does the main street, which looks much as it did in the 90's. The population today is less than 700. (In the TV show the population was stated as 850.)
This is Maggie's first house - the one that burnt down in the TV show. (They built a replica of this house in the vacant lot next door and burnt the replica down.)
Minnifield Communications, the home of "Chris in the Morning".
Still nicely preserved inside...
A large autographed print of the cast adorns the wall of the restaurant where we had lunch.

There is still an active Northern Exposure Fan Club and they have annual Fan Festivals in July of each year. For more information visit www.moosefest.org.

Glacier National Park

Although we were only able to go part way on Going-to-the-Sun Road due to a closure for seasonal repairs, we thoroughly enjoyed our one-day side trip. The park was virtually empty and we savored the solitude. While at Lake McDonald,only one other car (with 2 people) came into the parking lot.
Betty and Lucy enjoying the view.
Ah, the serenity...
The water cascading down the rapids along Going-to-the-Sun Road is colored a wonderful blue-green from the glacial melt.
The fall colors are as vibrant here as any I've seen.

Garnet "Ghost Town", Montana

First of all, it you plan to visit, I'd recommend entering off Highway 200 and not directly from Highway 90, unless you have a high-clearance vehicle. We came in off 90 with our Acura and the road was really too primitive for this car. It took us almost an hour to traverse the 10 bumpy miles...
In 1898 Garnet was a bustling mining town with over 1000 residents. Four stores, four hotels, three livery stables, two barber shops, a union hall, a school (with 41 students), a butcher shop, a candy shop, a doctor’s office, an assay office, and thirteen saloons comprised the town. During its heyday over 60,000 ounces of gold, 50,000 ounces of silver and 60,000 ounces of copper (with an estimated combined value of $950,000) were excavated from the 20 mines surrounding Garnet. By 1905 the rich veins of minerals were mostly tapped out and only 150 people remained. In 1912 a raging fire destroyed half of the town, which was never rebuilt, and Garnet was officially "abandoned" in 1947 when Frank Davey, the last resident, died.
Since 1972, the Bureau of Land Management and the Garnet Preservation Association have worked together to preserve many original buildings. The goal is to keep Garnet as authentic as possible, retaining the ghostly nature of the abandoned buildings. Unfortunately, most of the town's original furnishings were looted before the preservation efforts began, but the site is still well worth the visit. Because of the reliance on wood for building construction, these places are quickly disappearing, even with preservation efforts. Garnet may be one of our last opportunities to to experience an authentic piece of our pioneer heritage.Today thirty building remain, including a mix of commercial buildings and miner's cabins.
Preservation efforts include replacing some items (from donations) to recreate a flavor of the era. There is no commercialization of the town so there is a real authentic feel to the area.

A few more pictures from Yellowstone

The elk are in rut and the males are getting a bit agressive and defiant to the ranger's attempts to move them from the traffic lanes. A couple days ago a ranger told me that there were over 90 elk here in the Mammoth Hot Springs area alone.

A cow elk crossing the Gardiner River.

As the weather starts to cool, the fall colors are beginning to appear.

Taking it easy on the lawn in Mammoth.

And a couple pictures of the gentler side of Yellowstone.

He gave me the look like I'd better put one more picture of him on the web or he'd take out the grill of my car...