Columbia River Gorge, Oregon
Mt. Hood greeted us this morning with its distinctive silhouette, a quintessential Oregonian representative for a day filled with some of the state’s most beautiful and well-known natural features. We disembarked the Sea Lion just after breakfast at The Dalles, the only municipality whose proper name includes the article “The.” We made our first stop at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, with exhibitions covering the past and present geography, history and peoples of the area. A special exhibit on the cargo of Lewis and Clark allowed us to better visually understand some of the extreme conditions and challenges facing our intrepid explorers. Interactive displays devoted to the flora and fauna of the region took us on a virtual tour of areas unreachable by ship travel. Images, words, and crafts of some of the Native peoples gave us insight into the diverse and rich cultural heritage of both the people met by Lewis and Clark on their journey two hundred years ago and those who live and carry on the traditions today.
As the sunshine lured us out of the museum doors, we set off on the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway to Rowena Crest, an excellent viewpoint over the dramatic basalt cliffs to the river below. We snapped our photos and carried on to Mosier, where a section of the original scenic roadway has been closed to vehicular traffic. This gave many of us the opportunity to explore by foot or pedal this historic highway from a slightly slower pace than a motorized vehicle allows. Stunning scenery and perfect weather combined to make it a particularly fine morning. We reunited with the Sea Lion in Hood River, a quiet town whose popularity has grown significantly in the past decade due its world-class wind surfing opportunities.
Following a lovely feast and a well-deserved nap, we watched as Captain Graves and crew expertly maneuvered our small ship into what seemed like an even smaller space at Cascade Locks. Off we all went in search of dramatic waterfalls: we stopped first at Horse Tail Falls, whose name aptly describes the narrow stream of water cascading through the large, distinct crack in the cliff’s rock face. Continuing down the road, we came to Oregon’s most popular natural tourist destination, Multnomah Falls. The top tier of water falls 529 feet to a small pool, before dropping another 69 feet in the bottom tier. A stone bridge separates the two sections, allowing visitors a dramatic vantage point. A few energetic guests took the one-mile cardio challenge to very top, while the rest of us enjoyed watching water fall from a less strenuous lookout.
We capped off our evening with pina coladas on the bow as we dropped approximately 70 feet in the Bonneville lock. Bonneville’s massive gates measuring 500 by 76 feet towered over the ship, opening in dramatic flair to the Columbia River, with the final rays of the day’s sun shining brightly on the horizon.
Mt. Hood greeted us this morning with its distinctive silhouette, a quintessential Oregonian representative for a day filled with some of the state’s most beautiful and well-known natural features. We disembarked the Sea Lion just after breakfast at The Dalles, the only municipality whose proper name includes the article “The.” We made our first stop at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, with exhibitions covering the past and present geography, history and peoples of the area. A special exhibit on the cargo of Lewis and Clark allowed us to better visually understand some of the extreme conditions and challenges facing our intrepid explorers. Interactive displays devoted to the flora and fauna of the region took us on a virtual tour of areas unreachable by ship travel. Images, words, and crafts of some of the Native peoples gave us insight into the diverse and rich cultural heritage of both the people met by Lewis and Clark on their journey two hundred years ago and those who live and carry on the traditions today.
As the sunshine lured us out of the museum doors, we set off on the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway to Rowena Crest, an excellent viewpoint over the dramatic basalt cliffs to the river below. We snapped our photos and carried on to Mosier, where a section of the original scenic roadway has been closed to vehicular traffic. This gave many of us the opportunity to explore by foot or pedal this historic highway from a slightly slower pace than a motorized vehicle allows. Stunning scenery and perfect weather combined to make it a particularly fine morning. We reunited with the Sea Lion in Hood River, a quiet town whose popularity has grown significantly in the past decade due its world-class wind surfing opportunities.
Following a lovely feast and a well-deserved nap, we watched as Captain Graves and crew expertly maneuvered our small ship into what seemed like an even smaller space at Cascade Locks. Off we all went in search of dramatic waterfalls: we stopped first at Horse Tail Falls, whose name aptly describes the narrow stream of water cascading through the large, distinct crack in the cliff’s rock face. Continuing down the road, we came to Oregon’s most popular natural tourist destination, Multnomah Falls. The top tier of water falls 529 feet to a small pool, before dropping another 69 feet in the bottom tier. A stone bridge separates the two sections, allowing visitors a dramatic vantage point. A few energetic guests took the one-mile cardio challenge to very top, while the rest of us enjoyed watching water fall from a less strenuous lookout.
We capped off our evening with pina coladas on the bow as we dropped approximately 70 feet in the Bonneville lock. Bonneville’s massive gates measuring 500 by 76 feet towered over the ship, opening in dramatic flair to the Columbia River, with the final rays of the day’s sun shining brightly on the horizon.
