Columbia River
Sunlight flooded the sky all around us. A new day has begun. Drowsy at first, but waking rapidly to such a beautiful day, guests onboard the Sea Lion stirred and welcomed the adventure. Traveling up the Columbia River, through its magnificent gorge between Portland and The Dalles, we observed on both sides signs of lush vegetation. As we moved eastward the dense forests became sparse, and then turned into pine-oak woodlands, and finally sagebrush steppe. We had experienced this river from rainforest to desert. The contrast of 90 inches annual rainfall in Cascade Locks, to a mere 12 inches in The Dalles is the effect of the rain-shadow of the Cascade Mountains.
This is the sunny side of the state, and as we continued farther upriver, the day became much warmer. A tail wind helped us along our way. Soon we were in the big rolling waves with whitecaps and spindrift blowing off the tops. Of course it was easy to experience from the deck of the Sea Lion, but to think for a moment back two-hundred years to Lewis and Clark gives us pause. How would they have felt in their ungainly dugout canoes, if caught in waves like these? We offer a moment of tribute to their courage undaunted. We read their journals with increased respect.
Sunlight flooded the sky all around us. A new day has begun. Drowsy at first, but waking rapidly to such a beautiful day, guests onboard the Sea Lion stirred and welcomed the adventure. Traveling up the Columbia River, through its magnificent gorge between Portland and The Dalles, we observed on both sides signs of lush vegetation. As we moved eastward the dense forests became sparse, and then turned into pine-oak woodlands, and finally sagebrush steppe. We had experienced this river from rainforest to desert. The contrast of 90 inches annual rainfall in Cascade Locks, to a mere 12 inches in The Dalles is the effect of the rain-shadow of the Cascade Mountains.
This is the sunny side of the state, and as we continued farther upriver, the day became much warmer. A tail wind helped us along our way. Soon we were in the big rolling waves with whitecaps and spindrift blowing off the tops. Of course it was easy to experience from the deck of the Sea Lion, but to think for a moment back two-hundred years to Lewis and Clark gives us pause. How would they have felt in their ungainly dugout canoes, if caught in waves like these? We offer a moment of tribute to their courage undaunted. We read their journals with increased respect.
