Oregon to Washington

Today we set our from Madras and drove on highway 97/197 towards Castle Rock, WA where we are staying in a beautiful resort this evening.  This route is longer but due to snow in higher passes we chose to take this route which is about an hour longer.  It was also absolutely beautiful!
Pretty much as soon as we left Madras we could see Mount Hood.  What an amazing high glacier covered mountain.

The highway I suppose is typical mountain roads but to us prairie folks it was very windy and in many spots there are 90 or even 180 degree turns.

When you see a speed sign you do not ignore it that's for sure.  The road was smooth and there was a shoulder so that was super nice. There was a lot of smooth mesa type areas like in the picture above.  They had a layer of lava rocks along the top and there were lots of smaller lava rocks which I have never seen before, usually the ones I have seen are big black chunky rocks.

The scenery the whole was was fantastic.   The pictures, of course do not do it justice as most of them are "drive by shootings" 

There were beautiful bridges along the Columbia River near the Dalles which was a beautiful area.  We stopped at a rest stop near there and I was sure wishing we could stay in one of the state parks in that area.

                                     A lot of fruit orchards and vineyards in this area too!

                                         We saw a lot of alpaca farms as well as a lot of cattle.

                                                                 More orchards

               It was fun to watch the boats and huge barges along the Columbia River as well
The following pictures are from the Toutle River RV resort in Castle Rock WA   This is not a cheap place but very pretty and well looked after.  There are a few of the "tiny houses" in the resort so I assume some people live here full time.  It was nice to walk around the park and enjoy the scenery and also not be shivering.  My sweat shirt and windbreaker were actually even too hot!

                                                  This pretty thing is an Oregon Grape

 

                                                        Likely a crab or mock orange??

A lot of the trees here flower in the spring.  We noticed that all through Nevada and Oregon.

                        This bush looked like it should be a raspberry but I have no idea??

That's it for today - tomorrow we stay in Anacortes so we can catch the ferry to Sydney, BC in the morning.