RHH's photos with the keyword: gorge

The Iron Bridge was built in 1781 at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It was designed by Thomas Prtichard and built by Abraham Darby III. It is made of cast iron, is 100 feet long and spans the River Severn at the heart of Ironbridge Gorge in the town of Ironbridge. We visited there as part of tour arranged by the conference we were attending.

This is Ironbridge Gorge looking east from the old cast iron bridge that crosses the River Severn at the town of Ironbridge. The bridge was built in 1781 at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and is a major tourist attraction.

This view of the Columbia River Gorge looks east and is from Vista House, a visitors' center on Old Highway 30. One of the other photos shows Vista House.

This is Vista House, a visitors' center on Old Highway 30 in Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge. It is at Crown Point and was built in 1918 as a rest stop along the highway.

The Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge west of Portland is a land of waterfalls and Old Highway 30 follows the waterfall route. When we were there recently we stopped at only two of the falls, this one and Multnomah Falls. The crowds were more than we wanted to deal with and so we went on to the Oregon coast after only a few hours.

The photo is from a hike last summer at Dog Mountain in the Columbia River gorge. We spent several days exploring old and new places in the gorge while doing some orchid hunting there.

Taken from the visitor's center at Ginko Petrified Forest State Park, Vantage, Washington. This is where Interstate 90 crosses the Columbia River and where hundreds of petrified trees of many different species have been found and preserved as part of a state park. In spite of the fact that it was windy and cold we spent some time there last week Friday on our way to Spokane.

Another picture of this earliest and loveliest of our native orchids. These were photographed on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge along the Gorge Trail. This is the Western Fairy Slipper, distinguished by the brown markings on the lip and the white "beard." nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2011/06/c...

In Explore July 30, 2011, #363. These are the flowers of the Piggy-back plant, Tolmiea menziesii, often grown as a houseplant and native to the Pacific northwest. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/06/columbia-ri...

This time exposure was taken in the Columbia River gorge along Old Highway 30 in Oregon. The area is home to numerous waterfalls and streams such as this and is a photographer's paradise. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/06/columbia-ri...

In Explore July 31, 2011, #487. These pictures are from a brief trip we made earlier in the summer to the Columbia River gorge and to northern Oregon for a bit of sightseeing and hiking. Though very beautiful in the photo, this plant is a garden escape and a noxious weed that "suppresses native species in west-side forests and is spreading rapidly." The photo was taken along the Gorge Trail in the area of Horsetail Falls off Old Highway 30, a beautiful scenic drive on the south side of the gorge. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/06/columbia-ri...

As Old Highway 30 runs east toward Troutdale it climbs out of the gorge and near the top comes to Vista House, a memorial to the Oregon pioneers and a great place for some awesome views of the gorge. This photo was taken in the evening looking east. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/06/columbia-ri...

The pictures I've posted today were taken in the Columbia River Gorge this spring. This, I believe is the Upland Larkspur, Delphinium nuttalianum. It was photographed along Route 30, the road through some of the most scenic areas of the gorge on the Oregon side. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/06/columbia-ri... .

There are around seventy-five waterfalls in the area west of Portland along the Oregon side of the Columbia River gorge, but Multnomah Falls is the tallest and best known. At the falls it is possible to walk to this bridge above the lower falls and then up to the top of the gorge as well. This picture was taken in the evening just before the sunset while the second picture was taken the next morning when the light was more amenable to photography. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/06/columbia-ri... .

This picture was taken early in the morning, May 17th, on the Oregon side of the gorge, from a viewpoint named Angel's Rest, east of the town of Troutdale. This view looks east up the gorge at daybreak. Another viewpoint known as Vista House can just be seen on the right on the top of the cliffs. The area is known for its many waterfalls, most of which can be visited by following old Highway 30 along the Oregon side of the gorge and pictures of which I'll be posting at a later date. We did some sightseeing by car and followed Highway 30 several times through this part of the gorge. We also did some hiking in the area and saw some of the falls that are not accessible from the car. I consider this to be one of the most scenic areas in the Pacific Northwest and a "must visit" for anyone in the area. I am only sorry that it took us so long to get down there. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/06/columbia-ri... .

In Explore August 4, 2011, #356. Taken along the Gorge Trail in Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge while hiking there. Which bush or tree or shrub this is I do not know since I forgot to get pictures of the plant itself. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/07/hiking-in-c... .

The Phantom Orchid, Cephalanthera austiniae, is one of our rarer orchids, though we saw plenty of them on this trip. It is also unique in several ways. Cephalanthera is primarily a European and Asian genus with only this species in North America. In the genus this is the only species that is saprophytic (living off decaying material in the soil) and lacking in color (many species are pink to purple in color), and it is the only North American species that is always white. There are white forms of several other native orchids, but these plants are never anything but a stark white that makes them stand out like phantoms on the dark forests floors where they grow. Their lack of color also means, of course, that they are without chlorophyll. These were photographed on a trip to the Columbia River gorge. On June 12th, after visiting our son in the Spokane area, we drove through the night to the gorge and spent the day visiting several sites there, looking for native orchids and enjoying the spectacular scenery of the gorge. We visited an area near Drano Lake on the Washington side of the gorge belonging to the Forest Service and found three orchids there, including the Phantom Orchids that are the subject of this post. We thought we had hit the jackpot since there were several hundred Phantom Orchids in bloom there. After spending some time there we went on to Dog Mountain, still on the Washington side, and even though the weather was not very good, hiked the Dog Mountain Trail there and found Phantom Orchids everywhere. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/06/g...

I had hoped to watch the sunset from Vista House at the top of the Columbia River gorge, but the road was closed and I ended up watching it from a viewing area along Highway 84. The sunset, in the end, did not amount to much, but I managed to get a few good pictures, this being one of them. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-few-pictu...