Touch Portland's Water!

I was born in Portland, raised in Portland, lived my whole life in the Portland area (apart from my time at the University of Oregon), but I had never been to Mount Tabor Park until this past summer. Considering it dominates the landscape of the southeastern part of the city, that's quite an accomplishment.

Mount Tabor is not a mountain; it's a long dormant cinder cone, a relic of a volcanic eruption centuries ago, and named after a city in Israel. The park has hiking trails, tennis courts, basketball courts, picnic areas and fantastic vistas in all directions as one of Portland's highest points. When I was growing up it wasn't exactly known as very family friendly (probably why I had never been there), but these days - at least during daylight - families gather, lovers walk hand-in-hand and dogs are exercised by the dozens on the city's nicest days.

Also, the park is home to many of the reservoirs supplying drinking water to the City of Portland.

To me, it's a little odd. I mean, a person can literally walk right up to the reservoir (at the fence in the above picture), put their hand through the bars, and do whatever they want. Sure, the water is filtered and purified somewhere between these large pools and your faucet, but still.

And, as you can clearly see, they are completely open to weather and wildlife.

They do provide a nice backdrop for pictures. Even Misaki was impressed.

And yes, there are serious repercussions if anyone is caught messing with the pools. Presumably there is video surveillance as well.

Personally, I think there could be a little more prevention in place. These fences could be further back from the edge of the water, for one.

But hey, that's just me. The water at our house does not come from the City of Portland, but presumably it works out for them.

One of the reservoirs was empty because it was being cleaned and having some repairs done. These pictures do a poor job of really providing reference points for size - they are truly gigantic. Bigger in length and width than a football field, that iron fence is about eight feet high. You can also see the normal water line in this picture below, a few feet below the fence.

Here's a pic attempting to get the entire space. Doesn't that look like something you want to drink out of?

Drinking water aside, the park is a lot of fun and good exercise for people and their canines. And while the park is a fairly steep hill, the trails have been created so people can casually wind their way in circles to the top.

Or, if you are like us, you can simply take the stairs straight up.

The view from the top of the park probably isn't as good as it was 30-40 years ago because the evergreens continue to grow (not that I want to stand in their way). Still, on a nice day, a Shiba can see for miles. So can her humans.

It's a great place for a some exercise and we've been back a couple times since our initial visit.

Pro tips:

On nice days get there early. The parking lot fills up by noon.

Bring sunscreen on nice days because while there are plenty of trees all of the trails near the reservoirs are in open spaces.

Dogs on leash only. As it should be.

There are plenty of restaurants in the area to grab a bite. At the northeast corner of the park is Misaki's favorite, Steve's Cheese. At the east side is all the restaurants on Hawthorne. To the west side is The Country Cat for all meals, Bi-Partisan Cafe for coffee, pie and snacks, and Tanuki for dinner.

Portland's Rhododendron Garden

The Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Southeast Portland, not far from Reed College and just off the Eastmoreland Golf Course, was a common place for us to visit when I was growing up. Back then to us kids it was just "The Duck Pond," because that's where we would go to feed the ducks.

We'd stop by the Franz outlet store for a couple loaves of day-old bread (or week-old, I was never really clear on that...) and then go to this park to feed the flocks of ducks and mean geese. I'm sure it meant a decent chunk of time where the kids were entertained and Mom just had to keep an eye on whether or not we would fall in the lake, but we loved it. (By the way, as always, click on the picture for a larger version. Depending on your screen size and browser, you may be able to click it again to make it even larger.)

I remember there always being so many ducks, mostly mallards, with some big white geese bossing the ducks around and honking quite loudly. I remember having bread ripped from my hand by these geese and freaking me and my sister out, since they were bigger than us. I remember realizing years later it was called The Rhododendron Garden because there are literally hundreds of rhododendrons, and in late spring when they are all in bloom it's quite fantastic to see.

But then again, it's usually raining around here then, so we probably never went there when I was a kid and they were blooming.

My favorite childhood memory of this park has to do with a summer day. Maybe it was around the Fourth of July, maybe it was a family birthday party - not sure - but after a meal at grandma's house we loaded all the kids (me, my sister, my cousins) into cars and drove out to the garden with loads of bread. (This was years before we knew feeding ducks bread was a bad idea. Whoops. Sorry ducks from the past.)

I don't recall whose idea it was, but for some reason all of us kids thought it was a good idea to take off our shoes and socks, roll up our pants, and walk INTO the water in that top picture here. Now, generally, I don't think this is accepted practice and I would absolutely recommend parents don't let their kids do this for a variety of reasons, but we had a blast. I distinctly remember - I want to say I was eight or nine at the time - tripping on a rock and face planting in the water.

One of the many reasons to not do this is, as I mentioned, tons of ducks live here. The bottom of this pond is blanketed in a layer of sliminess which, really, should only be referred to as duck crap. And we slogged through, all around the pond, in bare feet.

It makes me nauseous just to think about it, but we had a blast. I'm pretty sure Mom did not have a blast getting us cleaned up to get back in the car; it was probably pretty nauseous for her too.

I remember the Garden being a raucous, kid-crazy place, but recent trips there have shown it has matured. It's a quiet, almost zen-like park now, filled with bird watchers, sketchers, photographers, and poets. Older couples - and young ones - stroll hand-in-hand, sitting silently to watch the water and the wildlife. Feeding the water fowl bread is frowned upon, but you can purchase acceptable bags of feed. And now you pay a fee to enter, $3 most days and most of the year, which I know wasn't around when I was little (no way we would have gone as often). Come to think of it, that's probably a big reason why it's quieter now.

And surprisingly the park is dog-friendly (on a short leash), so we have to go back and bring Misaki.

There are still plenty of animals and birds, along with flowers, so here's a sampling of what we saw on a late April trip to the park.

I think these are azaleas (rhododendrons weren't blooming yet). See the two colors? They were on the exact same branch.

New leaves on sword ferns, growing in the shade amongst the rhododendrons and under the pine trees.

And what do we have here? A nutria! It was still early morning, so this little guy was our foraging for some breakfast. He didn't seem to bothered by us, though still wary.

And then we saw another out, this one just out in a field. They are kind of cute, in a no-flat-tail beaver kind of way.

And here, of course, is a Canadian goose. I don't remember these from childhood, but there were quite a few Canadian goose couples there now. No little guys though.

Goose butts! Not really sure what they are doing when they do this. Getting food from below? Washing their heads? Gargling?

These two were just hanging out in the path. They watched us walk by, but weren't in a hurry to share the space.

Here is the mean gray goose I remember from my childhood (not to be confused with the much cooler Grey Goose). This guy was very cranky (maybe because he was alone?). In fact, he seemed so mean and old, maybe he WAS there when I was little.

See the bird here at the edge of the water? That's a blue heron. Wish I could have gotten a better picture, but this was on the opposite side of the lake and the best my camera could do. Time to upgrade.

This is a red-winged blackbird. They have a wonderful sound they make that I won't even attempt to put into words, but it's very melodic and distinctive. One of our favorite birds for sure.

These are red-winged blackbirds mating. At least, we think. The other bird was gray and they looked nothing alike, but per the link below the other red-winged blackbird picture could have been a female of the species. Or maybe it was a sparrow, we have no idea. Which brings up a good question: Do they know? Will they cross species? I need to know these things.

And this, my friends, is a double-crested cormorant. If any bird you ever come across reminds you of a dinosaur, it will be this one.

And we saw two! I had never seen ONE before.

This is your standard mallard duck. There are still plenty of these in the park, but I remember it being overrun by mallards when I was little. The shiny green/blue of their heads is still one of my favorite colors. (I also remember the disturbing-looking muscovy ducks, but haven't seen any of those around for a few years. They were cranky too - I always thought it had to do with their appearance.)

Duck butts! In tandem!

And here we have, in my mind, the most striking duck of all, the wood duck. I love the lines in his head, the long feathers over the back of his head, and the red eyes. Okay, perhaps they are kind of creepy too, but very, very pretty.

And here is another wood duck, posing just for us on land.

So there you go, a piece of my childhood. This is a great place to spend a couple hours wandering slowly on the grounds, taking time to enjoy nature. It's quiet, well maintained, and not very busy. We definitely need to go back and take the dog. Hopefully she doesn't try and eat a wood duck.

Not a Bad View

If you drive north on Interstate 205 in Portland, just past the exits to take Interstate 84 west into downtown or east to Hood River and beyond, there is a large hill to the left side of the freeway. Microwave towers top the hill, as well as a few houses.

I grew up on the East side of Portland, so whenever we headed out to the Columbia River Gorge or up towards Seattle, we always passed this hill, but I had never been up to the top of it. Perhaps at some point I was told by my tired mother or grandmother after a long drive there wasn't any reason to go up there. Maybe I was even told no roads were up there.

Whyever it was, I don't drive that way anymore. Living in southwest Portland, if I go north it's via Interstate 5 and don't go out to the Gorge very much at all. A few months back I was clicking through some local blogs and found this piece on PDXploration about a place called Rocky Butte. I was intrigued by the pictures, but even more so when I realized this was the place I had long wondered about as a child. I had no idea it had a name, a park, or that you could go up there and see what was there.

So I resolved at some point we'd check it out, if for nothing else than to get some nice pictures. Saturday we decided to do just that.

Apparently the butte itself is a cinder cone long extinct. It's topped by Joseph Wood Hill Park. Mt. Tabor and Powell Butte are also cinder cones, judged by geologists to all have been created about the same time, about 2.7 million years ago. They have supposedly been extinct for 300,000 years.

I will warn you, it's not the easiest place to find. It's off of NE 92nd, and from the map I thought I could take I-84 to the 82nd Ave exit, turn right on Halsey, then left on 92nd, and then right on Rocky Butte Road. That worked out well until I drove underneath Halsey on 82nd. Oops. That fact Halsey was an overpass didn't come through on the map. This was only a minor glitch - we continued to the first light on 82nd north of I-84, turned right, went over some speed bumps and past a park to 92nd, turned left, and were exactly where we needed to be.

There is one road up and the same road down, as best we could tell. It's a slow drive, but not that long, full of speedbumps, 180s, and tight corners. The houses - which must have outstanding views - aren't the newest nor really much of anything to look at; most of them look like they were built before it took real money to buy the land. Today they are probably million dollar homes for the view, but on flat ground would be about $250k-$300k in the current market. Some are tired, perhaps with better days in their past. However, if you want a piece of land there is some for sale, for those of you who want to build your home on the side of a cliff.

At the top of the drive, the peak of the butte I suppose you would call it, there sits a very impressive structure. Cars park on the side of the loop at the top of the butte - there are no actual parking spots - and then people walk up to the park. The walls of the park are high and remind one of a castle. The park is named for Joseph Wood Hill, who started a military institute in Portland in 1901. I believe this park was built in 1935, making 2010 it's 75th anniversary.

After climbing up to the park - either via a sloped track for a vehicle to service the microwave tower in its center or the imposing stairs - the top is flat and very impressive. The grass is green and a cinder trail goes around the entire edge of the park. Massive stone railings with built-in benches and columns topped with lights provide a very medieval feel.

Pretty clean and fairly empty.

The star here, though, is the view. I don't know if there is anywhere else you can stand in one place and see Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and various other points from a single spot. Supposedly you can do this at a spot in Washington Park, but I think that's outdated - perhaps you could 50 years ago, but the trees have grown since then. Saturday was a clear day, but despite indications from a guide in the park I couldn't see Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Rainier, or any of the other mountains listed. Smog? Who knows.

Mt. Hood

Mt. St. Helens, with I-205 in the foreground. Traffic was, um, not good.

It's a cozy little place. It's out of the way, so it wasn't busy despite the beautiful weather. Misaki was the only dog in the park, which she enjoyed, and no one bothered us. There were bicyclists who had made it up the hill resting, some hikers, and some people who had brought up a picnic lunch.

Misaki loved the view too.

I remarked to Wifey this might be kind of a cool place to come up to at night. The park is open until midnight and as I mentioned, there are lights. She shuddered and shook her head. After looking around a bit closer I noticed plenty of support for her reaction.

Plenty of lighting...but what would it illuminate?

On one of the stone benches I noticed the ashes of a fire. Who knows what that was for. There were empty beer cans, some other trash, and cigarette butts all over the place. And other things that may not have been cigarette butts.

Misaki does not approve of your trash!

I'm not saying this park is dangerous at night - I have no idea - but I'm willing to bet there are people there after dark who probably don't want to be disturbed for various reasons. Yeah, probably not going back after dark.

It's a decent enough park though, and on a nice, clear day you can see for quite a ways and get some great pictures. Check it out - during the day.

Crater Lake - You Simply Have To Go

Let me preface with this that I was born and raised in Portland, born over three decades ago, and I have never once made the trip south to see Crater Lake, Oregon's only National Park. Well, that's sort of true - apparently my parents went just a few months before I was born. I've seen pictures...so apparently I have kind of been there before. Wifey had been there once before, on a whirlwind trip with family from out of town a few years ago.

It's somewhere I always wanted to see... It's a place that helps define the image of Oregon on a national (and international) scale. And it's been in my backyard for 30 years and I've never been there. Literally, people have travelled across the globe from Europe and Asia and been to Crater Lake, and I hadn't been there.

On some level, that's depressing.

On another, when we decided to take this two week vacation but not actually go anywhere requiring a plane, we decided to finally put Crater Lake on the itinerary.

It's not a short trip to be sure. Crater Lake is roughly 4.5 hours (the way I drive) from Portland, which means to make it worth it we had to start early. Like set the alarm at 4am and leave by 5am early. Yikes. While on vacation? Yeah, we knew it then and know it now - it was nuts.

So we packed a lunch, lots of water, our Nikon digital camera, and headed out.

We decided to head down I-5 to Eugene (about 120 miles or so) and go east from there, which looks to be the most direct route. Plus I can push the car up to 80, especially that time of day, and not deal with any traffic. We stopped in Springfield for gas and were heading east of Eugene before 7am - good time.

Now, I have to admit something here. I lived in Eugene for three years in college and only once - late my senior year - did we go east of town. And that was only about 30 minutes on a highway slightly north of the one we took to Crater Lake. As I'm driving east on Highway 58, taking in all the various lakes and forests we were passing through, repleted with a litany of hiking trails and lack of human presence, it saddened me. What the hell was I thinking then? Why didn't we head out here on a nice Saturday? At this point we are 2.5 hours from Crater Lake - and we didn't go once? Seriously? Talk about missed opportunities...

At some point we're going to have to go back to this area to explore, it's that nice. On this day, though, we were focused.

As Wifey napped I drove up through some mountains, getting views of crystal clear lakes and watching out for the early morning truckers. Traffic was light and there was a passing lane while going uphill, so I rarely had to slow down. And every other car on the road wanted to go fast too, so that made me happy.

We pulled into the North Entrance of the park about 9:15 am, paid our $10 entry fee (hey, good for seven days, in case you are in the area!), and headed the nine miles in to the Rim Drive, which traces the circumference of the lake. On the way we passed through some serious desolation.


For those of you who don't know, Crater Lake was created about 7,700 years ago when Mount Mazama literally exploded. It used to be a 11,000+ foot mountain before the explosion, which left the caldera which eventually filled with water to form the lake. That's the short version - if you want the longer version, there are plenty of resources. :)

What you see here is the area surrounding the caldera. It's been 7,700 years and as you can see there still isn't much growing there because of the composition of the soil. It probably doesn't help matters much that there isn't much rainfall in the summer and were there the beginning of August, but I have a feeling it doesn't make much difference. Seeing this moonscape was somewhat reminiscent of seeing Volcanoes National Park on the big island of Hawaii - pure desolation. Pretty, but pure desolation.

There is a lookout just as the road from the North Entrance joins the Rim Drive, so we pulled over. Remember, this is my first in-person glimpse of this majestic site. As we walked up to the edge - it slopes up to the railing from the parking lot, then opens up down to the lake - I knew it would be good, but words cannot describe the view. It's majestic, it's beautiful, it's transfixing - basically, it transcends words.

I don't get left speechless very often and I never put much stock in the idea that a view could "take your breath away" - but that's exactly how I felt. All I could say was "Wow." At that view point Wizard Island (a close up in the preceding picture) was a ways to the right and the sun wasn't too much higher than the eastern rim of the lake.

And again, I was kicking myself at the same time as I stared at this view - why the hell hadn't I been here before?!

I got over that as the day goes - the actively kicking myself part, not the questioning. It was the first view of a million great ones - and 500 pictures that barely do the lake justice - of the day.


This is one of my favorite pictures. We took it later in the day, towards the east side of the lake. I love the way you can see the reflection of the rocks off the ice blue water. Plus - and both of us are into this - I love the way you can see the different sedimentary layers of rock.

About the timing on this pic... When we got to Crater Lake we decided to hit go right from the North Entrance, hitting the west side first and traveling around the Rim Drive that direction. This meant all of our pictures in the morning on the west side were directly into the rising sun (it being 10 am and all), and it also meant all of our pictures on the east side in late afternoon were directly into the setting sun. In retrospect perhaps hitting the west side first wasn't the best choice with regards to pictures - but that only means we need to go back and drive the opposite direction next time.

This is an area southeast of the lake called The Pinnacles. What they basically are is fumaroles created after Mt. Mazama initially exploded. This valley was filled with ash and varying bits of debris, but there were plenty of places the earth still needed to let loose pressure, so these fumaroles were created by vents of gas and lava pushing up from the crust. Because of the elements that shaped them, they didn't erode nearly as fast as whatever else filled up the valley. The end result is this valley of pinnacles. Quite the site, and worth the extra drive away from the lake to see.

This picture was taken past The Pinnacles. We parked our car at the end of the road about at least a half mile back - I think it was further - to walk down this trail to get some better pictures of The Pinnacles. After the Pinnacles were out of site - they would be on the right hand side and further back in this pic - we hiked a bit more to see where the trail went. After a bit we came to this sign. This is actually looking back towards where we came - our car and the lake is in the direction the picture is taken.

Now, I don't know why, but this sign cracked me up. Think about it. There is literally nothing but a trail we are standing on. There are no campgrounds nearby. There are no parking lots. There are no hotels. The only way to get to the park at this entrance is by hiking a very long ways. But hey - welcome!

And the good news if you go in this way? You save the $10 entrance fee cars have to pay. Of course, it will take you another half day or so to actually hike in far enough to see the lake.

So why is this sign even here? And is it really the official East Entrance? And that warrants a huge sign - well maintained, I should add - on a trail that people probably don't hike into the park on? Sure, people may hike down from the Pinnacles to beyond this sign, and then come back - but they were already in the park to begin with. Kind of crazy. And funny.

I love this picture because of the reflection of the side of the crater onto the lake. Only on a windless, sunny day could you get this. Keep in mind also that from the water to the rim at this point is something like 1,500 feet, if I remember right. Simply amazing.

Wizard Island is to the right in the picture.

This is an attempt to get the entire lake in a single picture. It's - if I recall right - three pictures we stitched together using the handy panorama setting on the camera, and taken from the south side of the park. Phantom Ship (another vent like Wizard Island and the tiny rocks surrounding it) is below to the right. Check out all the different shades of blue, from the sky above to the darkest blue water at the bottom of the picture. How phenomenal is that?

I won't claim to be more than a casual photographer screwing around with a new toy, but it would be pretty difficult to mess up anything that beautiful.

After waiting so long to visit Crater Lake, I'm so glad we finally went. And really, the drive wasn't that bad. I do recommend coming back to Portland through Eugene as well instead of Roseburg like we did (that route takes longer, more twists in the road and less passing lanes), but it's still a pretty drive. Well, the deer grazing next to the freeway just north of Roseburg at dusk freaked me out a bit - deer on the road is a long story I'll share at some point - but other than that it was nice.

I honestly believe this is a pilgramage every Oregonian must make in their lifetime. It's a bit out of the way, sure, but it's worth every single gallon of gas and minute sitting on your butt in the car.

You can say you understand it's a great place, the epitome of being picturesque, but unless you go you will never really know what that means.

So go! Get out there and go! Tell the chipmunks we sent you!