United States
Columbia River Gorge
A flood-torn canyon whose green basalt walls stream with waterfalls, one of them 620 feet.
Waterfalls drop from the canyon walls in silver threads that vanish into mist before they reach the river. The gorge funnels wind so hard that kitesurfers skip across whitecaps at Hood River while hikers feel spray from Multnomah Falls a hundred feet away. Green walls of basalt rise on either side, scarred by the ice-age floods that carved this corridor to the sea.
The Columbia River Gorge stretches 80 miles along the Oregon-Washington border, cut through the Cascade Range by the river and catastrophically widened by the Missoula Floods roughly 15,000 years ago. Dozens of named waterfalls pour off the Oregon side, crowned by Multnomah Falls, a 620-foot, two-tiered cascade with a 1925 stone lodge at its foot and a short paved trail to the bridge between the tiers. The Historic Columbia River Highway, Oregon's oldest, was engineered to frame the waterfall viewpoints, and its masonry viaducts and stone-walled overlooks are still driveable; Vista House, the stone observatory raised between 1916 and 1918 on Crown Point, watches the full sweep of the gorge. At the eastern end the funnelled wind turns the river at Hood River into a moving field of windsurf and kite canopies from spring through autumn.
Friends
Hood River's combination of wind sports, craft breweries and cider houses makes this a natural gathering point. Kiteboarding all day and working through the taprooms all evening is a weekend template that never gets old.
Couple
Driving the Historic Highway past waterfall after waterfall, stopping at Crown Point for the panorama, then ending in Hood River for dinner and local wine is a day that builds rather than peaks; every mile adds something.
Family
Multnomah Falls is reached on a short, paved trail, and the Fruit Loop's farm stands in the orchard valley above the gorge turn late summer into an eating tour. The waterfalls alone can fill a full day of easy stops.
- Multnomah Falls drops 620 feet in two tiers beside Oregon's oldest highway, its upper bridge reached by a short paved trail.
- The Historic Columbia River Highway was engineered to frame the waterfall viewpoints; its masonry viaducts and stone overlooks are still driveable.
- The gorge funnels wind down the river corridor so reliably that Hood River fills with windsurfers and kiteboarders from spring through autumn.
- Vista House, the stone observatory raised between 1916 and 1918 on Crown Point, watches the full sweep of the gorge in both directions.
The Hood River Fruit Loop threads the orchard valley above the gorge: 32 on-the-farm fruit stands, cideries and wineries between the pear rows.
Freshly caught Columbia River fish from Brigham Fish Market in Cascade Locks, a Native American family business at the water's edge.
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