Columbia River Gorge – Day 3 – Rowena Plateau & Klickitat River Loop

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I spend this morning’s sunrise up on the Rowena Plateau, part of The Nature Conservancy’s Tom McCall Nature Preserve just west of The Dalles, Oregon.  Rowena Plateau offers wildflowers and great views out over the Columbia River from basalt cliff tops.

I’m there about 30 minutes prior to sunrise to scout out photo ops.  The sun is rising over the Columbia Hills in the photograph above.

It was gusting to about 30 miles per hour, which always tries my patients when trying to photograph wildflowers.

After sunrise, I was hoping to photograph blooming orchards in Hood River with Mount Hood in the background.  Unfortunately, Hood River was pretty much clouded in, making for dull light.

Then, I headed across the Columbia River and drove a loop route on the Washington side running east along the Columbia River from White Salmon to Lyle, up the Klickitat River on Highway 142 to Glenwood, and then BZ Corner Road and Highway 141 back to White Salmon.  Great scenery much of the way, including Outlet Falls shown below.