Portland to Leavenworth to Portland

Portland to Leavenworth and back – March 26, 2017

Overview of Leavenworth activities:

Walking down Front Street 

Exploring Water Front Park

For the Rock Hounds – they have very interesting rocks in the river

The first pull out in Stevens Pass

Day by Day -

I left the Portland area around noon on a Sunday morning. I chose to travel via I-84 because I had my parents with me, and I knew we’d need to stop often so my parents could get out of the car and stretch. This route has plenty of places with clean bathrooms along the route.

It was pouring down rain for most of the day and so any photography, especially since I had my parents, was limited. Also, another limiting photography factor was the fact that the old highway was closed due to landslides, and the parking lot at Multnomah Falls was closed because it was full. That being said though, there were plenty of times I would have pulled over for a few shots had I not had my parents with me. The clouds were so interested as they hovered among the rolling hills, and the green on the hillside just glowed at times. Oh well, this time I have to be satisfied with the pictures in my mind.

Our first stop was at exit 64, Hood River Starbucks. Mom wanted a clean bathroom and I wanted coffee so it was a win win stop. Bridge of the gods is at this exit as well as the marina. Often you can photograph windsurfers here too. It’s not my favorite place to take photographs in the gorge, but it’s worth mentioning. If you are into the spring and/or fall foliage, this is an excellent exit to take. Go southerly following the road that heads toward Mt. Hood. It takes you past many orchards.

Mt. Hood Winery and Pine Grove Butte Cemetery both have beautiful views of fruit trees and Mt. Hood. http://mthoodwinery.com/contact-mt-hood-winery/

We crossed the Columbia River at the Biggs exit. We continued onto Toppenish, but there are several very interesting places to visit. The Maryhill Museum is just over the river heading westerly. Directions to the museum are very well marked. It offers good views of Mt. Hood on clear days. There are plenty of other nice things to photograph at the museum. Heading easterly is the Stonehenge World War 1 Memorial. I guess the official name is the Klickitat County Veteran’s Museum, or perhaps it’s just that this museum is located at the war memorial. Anyway, it’s a replica of the original Stonehenge. On clear days, some great photos of the river, the little town below, and Mt. Hood can be taken. After visiting the memorial, head on down to the little town of Maryhill for more great photos. There are gorgeous older buildings, antiques, the river, orchards, and fruit stands. It’s worth taking the trip just for the peaches if they’re in season.

On the way to Toppenish, you will pass very close to the windmills. On clear days, you will get great views of Mt. Adams. There are plenty of places to pull over and get beautiful and interesting photos along the way. The town of Toppenish is filled with murals painted on their historic buildings. There are some great restaurants and gift shops in the town as well as some great parks if you have kids that need to run around a bit.

The town of Yakima was our next stop. Yakima has plenty of hotels, restaurants, and stores. Mom and dad needed to walk around and so I stopped at Walmart, which is on the west side of town just off of the interstate. Yakima is the last major town until you reach Leavenworth although there were several fruit stands and a couple of restaurants.

There was plenty to see and photograph between Yakima and Leavenworth. The orchards were in full bloom. Also there were mountains and valleys. Again, if it wasn’t pouring down rain, I would have stopped many times to take photos.

It started snowing as we went through the last pass. The higher we got the more snow we saw. It was stunning.

The trip took a long time, and I was quite sore from the long car ride. I wasn’t saying it aloud, but I was thinking that I wasn’t ever going to make this trip again, and then…I saw my first glimpse of Leavenworth. It wasn’t long until I’d changed my tune and was thinking about who I was going to bring and how often I was going to come back. It really is a pretty town. It’s at the base of many tall mountains that are covered with snow. The shops and restaurants are all so pretty fitting in with the theme of the town. I just can’t wait to walk all around the town tomorrow.

We have rooms at World Mark. All of the units are 2 bedroom/2 bath. If you haven’t stayed at a World Mark facility, you should. They are fully furnished apartments. We have a beautiful mountain view from our rooms.

Day 2 –Leavenworth is a quiet little town at the base of the Wenatchee Mountains which are part of the Cascade Range. The Wenatchee River runs through the downtown area. The city has done a great job of providing beautiful walking paths and pedestrian bridges to explore the river. All of the buildings and signs have a Bavarian theme.

There are many shops to explore. Some are the typical touristy souvenir shops, but there are some others that are unique to the area. I had the grandkids with me, so of course we went into the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Shop as well as several toy stores. We also went into Kris Kringl and several little souvenir shops. Later I went back by myself and went into the Cheesemunger’s Shop and the Cup and Kettle Tea and Spice Shop. All of these stores are located along Front Street. Much of the city was built prior to ADA guidelines. Quite a few shops are located at the bottom of some pretty steep stairs.

I also wanted to explore the waterfront Park area. There were plenty of signs to guide me to the park entrance. I didn’t have the time to walk the entire path, but I did follow the trail to the rivers edge and manage to get some pretty photos of the mountains and nice reflections of them in the water. I also did a bit of exploring on Blackbird Island. Blackbird Island is accessed via pedestrian bridges. It is a wooded area with a walking path that goes around the outer edges of the small island. It’s an easy walk, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a wheelchair. They do have nice seating and viewing areas for those not up to the hike around the island. There are pedestrian bridges on the western and eastern sides. The seating/viewing areas are located on the eastern side (closest to downtown).

For dinner, we wanted an old-world German experience and so we dined at Andreas Keller Restaurant. We started with the giant pretzel. It was very good. I would definitely order that again. It came with a cheese sauce that was more like a fondue. I had the Schnitzel Cordon Bleu. I don’t know how traditional to Bavaria that it is, but I do know it was delicious. They had live music playing traditional German songs. It was a great experience. The restaurant is located at the bottom of some steep stairs.

Day 3 –

Today was rainy and overcast and so we decided to do more indoor activities. My mom loves Aplets and Cotlets and the factory is only a few miles away in nearby Cashmere, Washington. The tours are free, but I’d recommend calling first to make sure the machines are operating that day. There are plenty of samples to try in their store.  https://www.libertyorchards.com/tour

The town of Cashmere is very small, but really cute. http://www.cityofcashmere.org/  There are several places to eat one of which is going on my bucket list, Country Boys BBQ. It looks like a legit BBQ place. http://www.countryboysbbq.com/  

There is a nice city park and a 9/11 Spirit of America Memorial. If it weren’t raining, my grandkids would have loved to play in the park. The river also runs through the city so I’m sure there are plenty of photos and other activities that one can do.   http://www.911spiritofamericamemorial.com/

On the way back to Leavenworth we stopped at Smallwood’s Harvest in Peshastin. It’s basically a tourist trap, but it’s a good one. There was a great play area for the kids with plenty on free activities for them. Again, we were there on a rainy day and it is off season so many of the activities were closed. The petting zoo is open year round. For $1 you can buy a bag of feed for the animals. It costs $2 per person to go into the petting zoo. There are a lot of animals for the kids to feed. There were goats, cows, emus, llamas, pigs, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, geese, and a peacock. They call it a petting zoo, but the kids can’t get in with the animals. It’s really more of a feed the animals zoo. Whatever it is, the kids loved it. It was a cheap and fun activity for them. The store is great. It’s very clean and offers a nice bathroom. It is well stocked with local canned goods, beverages, popcorn, candy, toys, souvenirs, and a ton of Seahawk merchandise. We enjoyed our time there.  https://smallwoodsharvest.com/

We spent a bit more time in Leavenworth before calling it a day. We explored the Nutcracker Museum. They show you a short video to talk about the history of the nutcracker then you are set loose to explore the museum. The kids are given a list of different nutcrackers to find. If they find them all, they are given a little button to pin on their shirts. We spent our time looking for obscure nutcrackers. It was fun though. We also went into a very nice toy store called the Wood Shop. They have nice high quality toys and a play area in the back. The kids really enjoyed playing on the mini-grand piano and playing store with the food and shopping carts. Grandma was tired after that and I was ready to sit down with a cup of coffee. We went into the pastry store that I’d spotted the day before. It was a disappointment. They had nice looking pretzels, but they were cold and they had no way to heat them. They also didn’t have decaf coffee. I’m going to look for a different pastry place.

We ended our day relaxing in the hot tub at the hotel.

Day 4 –

Enzian Inn – Breakfast  http://enzianinn.com/

They have a nice breakfast buffet for $15. Call ahead for reservations if you aren’t staying there. Every morning someone plays the Alphorn. While we were here, it played at 8:45 am and 9:15 am. The breakfast buffet features made to order omelets, potatoes, waffles, sausage, breads, cereals, oatmeal and yogurt both served with a variety of toppings, fresh fruit, and pastries. The pastries are made in house every morning, and they are delicious! The Inn has beautifully detailed woodwork and craftsmanship. I walked around and explored the indoor pool and hot tub. It looked very clean and well maintained. The room that houses the pool is decorated beautifully with columns, ornate draperies and a wonderful painting of a boy with loaves and fishes standing by a river. I might stay there just to swim in the pool. I would go to their breakfast buffet again as long as I was there to hear the Alphorn.

Road to Fish Hatchery – Icicle Road - I headed over toward the fish hatchery. The scenery was pretty, and there were some hiking trails, but nothing seemed too exciting.

Hwy 2 toward Stevens Pass -  Highway 2 follows the river. I think it’s the Tye river. There are many places to pull out, but most of them were on the river side of the road. I decided to head  north from Leavenworth for several miles and then turn around so the pull offs were on my right. There were 3 pull outs that I liked the most. The first one was beside a walking bridge that went over the river. The pull out was very small. It’s pretty easy to get from the road to the walking bridge and on down to the river if you choose. I was by myself and so I was being cautious.

The next place had a larger pull out and allowed easy access to the river and also a nice view of the bridge from a distance. I suspect that this would be a good spot to photograph kayakers. I spotted 3 kayaks when I was there and the weather was crummy.

My favorite pull out was just outside of Leavenworth. Looking toward Leavenworth, you can see the 20 mph sign. It had a very nice sized pull out, it was higher than the river and had not trees or shrubbery blocking the view of the river. There is a nice set of rapids there. I saw the same kayakers taking these rapids. I think it would be a fun place to photograph under better weather conditions. There is a great view of the river running through the mountain pass.

Road to Amtrak – This road has some lovely views of the mountains and the river. Head northerly (toward Cashmere/away from Stevens Pass) on Front Street,  turn left of Chumstick Highway, and right on North Road. North road eventually leads to the small town of Peshastin. The pull out just passed the Amtrak station parking lot has a nice view of the mountains. My favorite pull out is directly across from Icicle ??? Winery. If you walk over to the edge of the drop off, there is a great view of the river, the railroad tracks, and the mountains. I’d love to photograph a train on the tracks here.

Day 4 – heading home

The sky was so nice that I decided to head out to some of my favorite places to get some better photos. My first stop was Stevens Pass. I just went to the first pull out because I had my parents with me and they were wanting breakfast.

Breakfast at Louis Café – Highly recommend this place. The prices and the food were great. It’s nice American home cooking.  http://www.louiescafeleavenworth.com/

It’s an easy walk for most persons to the Waterfront Park from Louis Café. I walked down and grabbed a few more photos while my parents drank a second cup of coffee. The walk to the park is too strenuous for them, and there is no place to park there. If an elderly person really wants to walk in the park, there is a pull-out that can be used for loading and unloading passengers. The park area itself is fairly level other than the entry/exit itself. It’s not too much of a slope.

We took some time to pack up and vacate our hotel before heading out of town. I decided to travel on North road so that I could get a better description of some of my favorite pull-outs plus, it’s a prettier drive.

I meant to go into Winatchee, but my gps didn’t work as planned. I traveled 97 and 82 toward Toppenish. I was curious about a deep gorge that I saw near a rest area, so I pulled off to see if it had any nice photo ops. Looking back at the bridge was alright, but there were cautionary signs about rattle snakes so I didn’t walk around very much. The road over the mountain has many nice places to pull out and photograph the valley below. I’ve taken them previously, but didn’t this time because of having my parents with me. They don’t do very well for long periods of time in the car.

We wanted to eat in downtown Toppenish so I took the second Toppenish exit (I believe it was exit 50). Toppenish is known for its murals painted on the sides of historic buildings. They paint a new mural every year, and they are beautiful. https://www.visittoppenish.com/blank The first Saturday in June is the day that the murals are painted.

I asked a local for a good spot to eat that was something unique to their town. I was told hands down that I needed to eat a hamburger at Dad’s – so, we did. We just got the classic cheeseburgers. They were good. I’d order it again, but I’d share it with someone.

The town has several nice parks with playgrounds and some cute shops in the historic district. In the newer part of town there is a Safeway and several fast food chain restaurants. I was hoping to find a restaurant in the more historic part of town, but I didn’t find anything.

My next stop was at Stonehenge. The winds had picked up and the clouds were covering Mt. Hood so I just took a few shots before leaving. The town of Maryhill sits at the base of the river. It’s a very picturesque from the view above. Dave and I have spent some time exploring the town. There are several very interesting places to visit. I also love the orchards and the fruit stands when things are in season.

Our next stop was at Starbucks in Hood River; exit 64 off I-84. There is a nice restaurant with a river view in the Best Western Plus Hotel beside Starbucks. There is also a McDonalds at this exit.

Check for pass conditions. The passes crossed from Biggs to Leavenworth are: Snoqualmie Pass and/or Blewett pass. Apparently the bridge at Biggs Junction between I-84 and Highway 14 over the Columbia is closed in the winter. Please check if chains are required.

Bucket List:

Spend some time in Cashmere

Spend more time exploring the area in Stevens Pass

Go across the bridge in Stevens Pass and hike a bit along the river

Come to Leavenworth in the Fall and again in the winter

Explore Lake Wenatchee area and Fish Lake

Hike up Saur Mountain to get sunset photo

Find nature reserve in Peshastin to take sunset photo

Go see a mural painted in Toppenish – first Saturday in June every year