At the top of the Columbia River Gorge

We've been in a meditation group together for more than a decade, but the group has been meeting on Zoom since 2020, and we had never been to Lindy's home atop the gorge till Sunday. The main is Lindy and Sue, looking east toward the high desert. The first extra is looking west toward Hood River, and sixty miles beyond that and out of sight, Portland.

The Columbia River is the border between Oregon and Washington, and  the grasses are dangerously dry. The sun was beating down on us, and there are many forest fires already blazing (if you're interested to see how many and where, there's a map here, though it takes a minute to load). The smoke from one of the fires moved our way during the afternoon, so that when we left, the view was not nearly so clear as it was when I made these photos. It's one of the many terrible results of climate change. 

Lindy says they often see deer, elk, cougar, and bear. We didn't see any of those animals, but we were pleased to see a number of raptors drifting on thermals, and we saw butterflies. There are precious few of the latter in Portland.

Just added a second extra of the view from their living room. The house was originally a log cabin that they have done a good deal of work on. They've been there since the 70s.

I forgot to mention that the brown area opposite them on the Oregon side in the second extra shows the after-effects of a recent fire in brush that dried out after trees had been cut down for paper.