We kicked the day off with a hotel waffle breakfast, followed by grocery shopping in anticipation of camping for the next three days. At the supermarket, we discovered that we really missed Canadian food. It was so hard to find bread and yogurt without any added sugar! All the milk is labelled differently, and we couldn't find brown onions (only super-massive white ones).
On our way east along the Columbia River, we stopped at Multnomah falls which we had missed last time we were out exploring the gorge. The parking lot for the falls is in the middle of the highway, so we exited on the left, which was quite strange. From there we walked under a bridge to the Multnomah Falls Lodge which was built at the same time and in the same style as the historic highway and Vista House that we'd visited yesterday. The falls were a short walk past the lodge, and as expected were swarming with people. According to the Oregon Secretary of State and the United States Forest Service, the falls attract over two million visitors each year, making them the most-visited natural recreation site in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
As we passed The Dalles on the I84, the landscape very suddenly changed from lush green forest to dry and desert-like. Linda (our Portland Airbnb host) had told us to look out for this change, and that even in winter you can see the weather change from overcast and drizzly to full sunshine here. For the rest of the drive, the landscape was utterly arid and inhospitable.
Nevertheless, there are farms all over the place. They're all irrigated by huge machines that drive in circles around and around connected to a water source in the centre, which results in lots of circular crops all over the place. When viewed from the air via Google Maps it results in a very surreal picture. We stopped for lunch at Subway, and when we came back out to the car the thermometer was reading 49 degrees! It's boiling here.
We arrived at Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area, and after waiting ten minutes for a big RV to back into a site, we found a spot for ourselves in amongst the old growth trees. The campsite is self-registration, which means you find your own place then fill out an envelope with your details and some cash for the nightly fee, and post it into a box at the park entrance. You keep hold of a carbon-copy receipt, which you leave on your windscreen while you're at the camp. Even though it's self-registration, the park has rangers present most of the time and has two groups of volunteers who stay long-term at the park taking care of the grounds and the campers.