'Gorge'ous!

     This past long weekend, my family and I drove some 13 hours to spend a few days in the Columbia River Gorge area in Oregon, U.S.A. What an amazing place! I had seen many photographs of the countless falls there and ever since then had wanted to visit. We saw around ten waterfalls in our short time there. Some were just meters from the parking lot, others required a few hours of your time to get to. I have to admit that when I first saw images of these falls, I thought that they must have been manipulated a great deal. They seemed so surreal. Now that I have finally seen some of the falls in person, I now know that these pictures were not exaggerated.
     The waterfalls in this area truly do have a surreal quality about them. Maybe its the variety of plants and trees. The moss and the ferns. How many shades of green are there? Many of the falls just seem to come out of nowhere, shooting out from a wall of grey or green. One way to describe it is that they have a very 'Jurrasic Park' feel to them. The variety this planet has to offer for our enjoyment is endless.
     In the days ahead I will post some of the photographs from our short but well worth it trip. Even though it is nothing like being there, I hope the pictures give you some idea of why we have wanted to visit this place for some time.
    I will start of with this shot of the lower portion of Latourell Falls with a walking bridge in the foreground. This place was fairly busy as it only took a few minutes to walk there from the parking lot. I actually had to clone out a few people in this one. I didn't have all day to wait around for people to remove themselves from my shot...... we had other falls to see. Click on image for a better look.