Another day, another drive

After my class finished a little after noon today, I decided to go check out another section of the WIllamette Valley that I haven't fully explored yet. So after driving through the town of Stayton, I headed north to check out a small lake on the north side of town. One of my co-workers said that it was one of his "secret" fishing spots. As there is no parking lot - you have to park on the side of a slightly busy road, and homes and other buildings surround it, I would say that it is not worth stopping at unless you live a block or two away. The next site I was interested in was the Gallon House Covered Bridge on Gallon house Road, which was south of Mount Angel. It was quite nice as far a covered bridges go...

 The southern entrance.

The northern entrance.

After that, I went out to Scotts Mills to check out the namesake county park which used to be the location of a flour mill. You can still see remnants of the site as a what appears to be a side channel for the mill diverts some of the water through a switchback channel. The low-lying dam had been destroyed in the middle and now allows water to flow over McKay Falls - a scenic waterfall that flows over basalt columns that formed about 15 million years ago.

The backwater pond where the mill once stood.

 The broken dam.

 McKay Falls and dam.

The side channel.

 Mckay Falls with dam above.

McKay Falls.

Finally, after driving through the small towns of Marquam and Monitor, I headed home through Mount Angel. Along the way, I saw a well-built Lutheran Church...