Portland I – Columbia River Gorge

We arrived in Portland for a week’s stay (our longest for this trip) near the end of May.  Our planned itinerary was a bit “sketchy”, leaving open time to relax and enjoy not being on the road.  Since Gary has been doing all the RV driving, I have made it my priority to drive us around town in the car, while we visit the Portland area. 

We decided to start exploring the area with a trip up the Columbia River Gorge. The gorge is a fairly recent structure - in geologic terms. About 15,000 years ago, the Missoula Floods carved this gorge, which is over 80 miles long and up to 4000 ft deep (must have been very large flood events!).  These dimensions are difficult to comprehend for someone raised in Appalachian Mountains of the eastern US.  

With all the winter rains, snow melt, and healthy underground springs, there are year-round waterfalls upriver from Portland.  Most of the falls are on the southern, Oregon side of the Columbia.  Geology explains this, since the local bedrock is slightly tilted southward, resulting in the WA side having more evidence of landslides, and less places for waterfalls.

Staying in Troutdale, near the river and east of Portland, provided a great “jumping off point” to see some of these waterfalls.  With a waterfalls map in hand, we left early one morning following the Historic Columbia River Highway (old route 30). This historic highway was built in 1915 to attract tourism along the Columbia for travelers using the, then new, method of transportation -automobiles. 

By today’s standards, this curving, two-lane road is no highway, but it must have been special in its day.  From a contemporary standpoint, it’s a wonderful trip into history.

Along with the road, a few roadhouses were built to provided meals and, sometimes lodging.  A wonderful stone structure – Crown Point Vista House -  was built on an outward precipice for viewing the Columbia and is still used today (with more modern parking around it).  Within about 15 miles along this route are about a dozen waterfalls. 

We learned there are several types/categories of waterfalls – plunge, horsetail, fan, cascade, punchbowl, block tier and segmented – represented among these falls.   

Latourall Falls - Plunge

Bridal Veil Falls - Tiered

Wahkeena Falls - Tiered

Horsetail Falls - Horsetail

We really enjoyed the trip, even though our day started with overcast weather.  As the day progressed, the traffic grew heavier, and we were glad we got the early start.  We managed to see about half the waterfalls. We chose to stop at falls near the road, or within a mile or so hike. As the day progressed, the crowds were filling some of the rather small parking lots, making both parking and viewing the falls difficult. 

By far, the busiest stop was the Multnomah Falls.  This 620-ft falls (listed as the second tallest year-round falls in the US), has around 2.5 million visitors/ year. It also is the only one with a visitor’s center, restaurant, and other amenities, such as volunteer interpreters.

Multnomah Falls - Cascade

Multnomah Falls

Traveling on the old historical highway helped take us back to an earlier time.  However, we can only imagine what the trip must have been like for Lewis and Clark’s expedition.  This gorge completed their goal of finding a way to the Pacific.  It’s a rugged terrain, and a beautiful one.  I hope we manage to keep this river system – from British Columbia, Canada, to the Pacific Ocean - a healthy one for future generations!