Our Trip to Maryhill Museum of Artby Josh
Not even a two hour drive East of Portland, through the Columbia Gorge and across the river into Washington, lies the Maryhill Museum of Art.
I had been charged with finding a killer day trip. Maryhill came up almost immediately in my research: it caught my eye due to its Warhol exhibit. I was like "Andy Warhol in rural Washington? No way!"
"Way," says Sitting Bull.
Maryhill Museum of Art is an old mansion on land that was once owned by Sam Hill, who was a bigshot in the Pacific Northwest. Part of Hill's Legacy is the Historic Columbia River Highway, which we took for about seven miles and caught closeups of Multnomah and Wahkeena Falls on the way to the museum. He was convinced to turn his mansion into an art museum by his friend Loie Fuller, who was an artsy bigshot dancer with connections in France, who subsequently loaded Hill's new museum with over eighty Rodins, among other works. They have a lovely permanent exhibit of sculptures and fragments by Auguste Rodin that is worth a visit in its own right.
The Warhol exhibit, which is showing through November 15, was impressive. We're all glad he came through our part of the world, albeit in a strange location! However what was most impressive was the scale replica of Stonehenge down the road a few miles, still on Sam Hill's land, built as a WWI memorial to those who had died in the war from Klickitat county. Really, a very surreal experience. Pax enjoyed walking around and picking up rocks. He even found a couple runestones someone had left behind!
To Get There: Take 84E out of Portland (follow signs for historic hwy, if desired) to The Dalles. Cross the Columbia River using The Dalles Bridge/197. Take a right on WA-14 and go about twenty miles. Follow the signs!
