Jurassic Discoveries - A Week in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge

I recently spent a week in Oregon's Columbia Gorge, with a quick side trip to Palouse Falls, located in Eastern Washington. I loaded up the motorhome and headed north for the 12-hour drive from California. Tucker, my beagle, road shotgun the whole trip and napped just about the entire time. He did stick his head out the window a few times to bark at the cows we passed, standing in the many fields along the highway.

This time of year the green in the plant life is off the charts and just amazing to see, as well as photograph. I hiked many of the well known waterfalls up and down the Columbia River Gorge, as well as a few not so well known, in pursuit of waterfall photography. I was not disappointed -- all of the falls were flowing strong from the spring run-off from nearby Mount Hood.



Hiking back into the deep forest areas felt like stepping back into time, like the land of dinosaurs. I remember standing at the banks of the creek fed from the beautiful Ponytail Falls, looking at all the bright green moss and foliage, thinking it felt like a scene out of Jurassic Park.



The last day in the Gorge I hiked up to Elowah Falls again, as I had enjoyed it so much the first day. This time Tucker stayed in the RV (because the last time, he got soaked and wasn't thrilled with being anchored to a rock while I photographed). I grabbed my gear and started across the parking lot toward the trailhead. I looked up to see a dog running down the path with what looked like a big stick. He ran right toward me and as he got closer I realized, "that's no stick, it's a DEER LEG!" Yes, the leg of a deer....half bone, half fur and foot. He dropped it at my feet and wagged his tail, "uhhh, good boy?" I pondered out loud. He had a harness on, so clearly he was with his master...as I reached for his tags, he stepped back, not interested in me touching him. I tried a couple times to get him to come to me...my plan was to tie him up, because the freeway was only 50 yards away and he was running around pretty wild-like.

No dice.



So, I headed up the hill calling him, "here boy...come on, let's go!" and he actually did run after me...then he'd run ahead of me...this dog could run! So about half way up to the falls he disappeared off in the dense forest. I had done all I could, so I proceeded up to the falls. About 30 minutes later I headed back down and ran into a couple, "have you seen a dog...?"

"Ohhhhh yes, have I." I responded..."When I first saw him in the parking lot he had a deer leg..." they looked at me like I'm totally crazy, or joking... "a DEER leg?" I nodded.

So we hiked down together. "That stupid dog..." the man was muttering. He was clearly not happy the dog had run off, for what seemed to be a repeat event for them.

We got to the parking lot, no dog. But, we did find what was left of the deer leg...the skin, fur and foot that once was...was no longer. The dog had eaten it all...what remained was just the bones, oh and the toe nails.

Finally, after a few minutes of calling, here comes the dog, down the hill, happy to see his owners and he jumped in the car. Another happy day hiking at Elowah Falls for him!

EWWWWWWWWWWWW!