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Viento State Park is a state park located in Oregon, along the Columbia River. It is about an hour East of Portland and the park entrance is essentially just right off Highway I-84. Viento State Park itself is not big and does not have many day visitors. It does however, have 2 camp sites located at North and South of Highway I-84. During the autumn season. many trees in Viento State Park turns its leaf color into bright yellow, which is quite a lovely scene.
On this beautiful weekend in late October, we decided to drive to Viento State Park to enjoy an autumn hike and check out the fall color in Oregon. We let early in the morning and got to Viento State Park by 9AM. There was no one else there. The day use parking fee is $5 and NW Pass is not honored here unfortunately. As mentioned before, there are campsites in Viento State Park and does not require reservation.
While we were there, we saw another car came by and started doing photo shoot with a female model. We were guessing that this is a popular area for model photo shoot.
We strolled around and headed North towards the river. As we approach the river, we came across the rail road. It was a very clear and straight rail crossing at this point where we could see very the train from very far away. We enjoyed some time here taking some photos.
We then drove to the South side of Viento State Park. There are several hiking trails here. We took the shorted and easier trail and this is Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. The trail used to be a road for cars hundred years ago. Now the trail is only used for hiking and biking. The trail is only 1 mile long and connects Viento State Park with Starvation Creek Falls. We took this trail and headed towards the waterfall. The scenery along the trail was also amazing with all the fall colors.
When we got to Starvation Creek Falls, there was no one else there for some reason although there were cars in the parking lot. We enjoyed our time seeing the water falling down from way above. It was as amazing as Multnomah Falls.
Overall, Viento State Park is a good place to spend the day for a family with small children. The trail at the park is quite easy and very well paved. Hiking trail even has fence around it preventing people stepping off the trail. Biking is also a great option here as the biking trail is well paved.
Landon Bay is located near Kingston, Ontario in Canada. It is within the jurisdiction of Canada's Thousand Islands National Park. The Thousand Island National Park is a place that encompasses lot and lot of small islands along the St. Lawrence River along the US and Canada border. Landon Bay is located near the West end of the National Park and has several camp grounds and hiking trails. During the autumn season when the maple leaves begin to change color, the hiking trail here is a magnificent place to go.
Landon Bay is on the East side of Kingston and about 2.5 hours of drive from Toronto. We left early in the morning around 6AM and drove East bound on Highway 401. We stopped by the rest area after 1.5 hours in and we could see the forest across from the highway having variety of colors. It was very pretty. While we were at the parking lot, we also saw a very cute yellow Labrador retriever sitting in the car by itself waiting for its master to come back. The car was still turned on and the dog was sitting on the driver's seat. It looked as if the dog was driving the car.
We got to Landon Bay by 9AM in the morning. The parking lot at Landon Bay was very small and only fit about 10 cars. We were lucky to find a parking space since we got here early. Many people who could not find a parking space simply parked their cars on the grass or along the road.
As we headed towards the hiking trail, we could see beautiful yellow and red maple leaves with sun light shining on it. It was amazing. The hiking trail started with an archway made out of rocks. As we stepped on the trail, it was covered by lot of fallen yellow leaves and was very very soft. It was quite enjoyable to walk on.
As we moved further along the trail, we headed towards the lookout point. There were steps built for people to climb onto the rock. We could see St. Lawrence River on the far side and many small islands along the river. It was a very relaxing view.
After the lookout point, we headed further along the trail. We then reached the Wishing Tree. The Wishing Tree was a gigantic tree with branches growing upwards instead of sideways. It was very cool.
Hiking in the forest of Landon Bay during autumn season was so relaxing and enjoyable. The sunlight shining through the leaves make the forest look golden. It was one of the most relaxing hike we ever had and would definitely look for places like this in the future again.
