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Trip from Wenatchee WA to Oregon
My husband and I will be visiting my sister in Wenatchee in early November and would like to plan a few extra days to go to see the Columbia River Gorge and Mt Hood and St. Helens. We are in our 70s so nothing too strenuous. Any suggestions would be appreciated and also what is the weather like in November? We have never been to either place. Thanks!
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Predicting the weather these days is a risky business. However, in "normal" times (whenever that is/was,) you probably wouldn't have snowy weather, although at night there might be some black ice on the roads. Being east of the Cascades, it's a dry area, so while there might be some rainy days it won't be nearly as wet as you'd encounter west of the mountains. I'd stick to US 97 from Wenatchee south to the Columbia at Maryhill, then west into the gorge. With any luck, there will still be some good fall color in the Hood River Valley, and assuming the rains have started, the waterfalls along the "waterfall zone" (basically between Hood River and Troutdale) should be quite impressive. Map - https://goo.gl/maps/uqaeSn9fRAQsyntN7
Mount St. Helens is another matter. I'd expect snow on the ground by early November at the Johnston Ridge observatory, but that would hardly matter because the access road (WA 504) has been closed for months due to a landslide and no reopening date has been announced. In any event, by November it's likely things will be socked in, making the view go away, even if you could get there. |
IF the weather suits... you might first consider a trip from
Wenatchee to Dry Falls, WA, to Coulee Dam, WA That would afford you an interesting beginning to the Columbia Gorge. Along some of the highways in the area mentioned above you'd find giant boulders out in the middle of fields near the sides of the highway with no hills anywhere around and that would be your first clue in perceiving that those giant rocks were deposited there by much larger icebergs which flowed from western Montana and through the Gorge toward the ends of past ice ages when an ice dam broke and resulted in some of the largest floods on record. (when the ice finally melted sufficiently, that's where the large rock was dropped... and in many cases, humans later just worked around them) Dry Falls will give you some further important understandings about the Gorge and all of the ice age flooding. GlacialLakeMissoula.org is a good website for preparatory understanding too. As Mount St. Helens is rather isolated, ... in November, you should indeed anticipate your other hoped-for journeys while perhaps cutting that one out. November is the rainiest month in the Seattle-Portland corridor... so begin with that and imagine the potential related concerns (snow in the mountains, etc). |
Originally Posted by NorthwestMale
(Post 17482140)
IF the weather suits... you might first consider a trip from
Wenatchee to Dry Falls, WA, to Coulee Dam, WA That would afford you an interesting beginning to the Columbia Gorge. Along some of the highways in the area mentioned above you'd find giant boulders out in the middle of fields near the sides of the highway with no hills anywhere around and that would be your first clue in perceiving that those giant rocks were deposited there by much larger icebergs which flowed from western Montana and through the Gorge toward the ends of past ice ages when an ice dam broke and resulted in some of the largest floods on record. (when the ice finally melted sufficiently, that's where the large rock was dropped... and in many cases, humans later just worked around them) Dry Falls will give you some further important understandings about the Gorge and all of the ice age flooding. GlacialLakeMissoula.org is a good website for preparatory understanding too. As Mount St. Helens is rather isolated, ... in November, you should indeed anticipate your other hoped-for journeys while perhaps cutting that one out. November is the rainiest month in the Seattle-Portland corridor... so begin with that and imagine the potential related concerns (snow in the mountains, etc). |
There's a scenic train ride out of Mt Hood that is pretty nice. It stops for lunch at some farm shops up in the orchards. Pretty fun: mthoodrr.com/
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Just keep an eye on short term forecasts. November will likely be OK in WA and OR but could also be an early snow storm. No predicting lately
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Originally Posted by suze
(Post 17482931)
Just keep an eye on short term forecasts. November will likely be OK in WA and OR but could also be an early snow storm. No predicting lately
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More likely just cold and raining. Good luck with the trip. If you had more time I'd encourage to you get out to the Oregon Coast. Incredibly beautiful.
Welcome! suze, in seattle |
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