Columbia River Gorge Hikes
The Columbia River Gorge also is a geologic wonder and its landscape truly reflects the power of nature. For millions of years, hundreds of erupting volcanoes frequently altered the course of the Columbia River, ultimately creating one of the few canyons in the world oriented in an east-west direction. Near the end of the last Ice Age, the massive Missoula Floods swept across eastern Washington, scouring cliffs high above the river bed, creating one of the world’s greatest concentrations of waterfalls from tributaries left hanging above the river. Our itinerary takes you in and around so many of these waterfalls, as well as climbs to heights offerings unsurpassed vistas of the area, and tops it off with a stay at the historic Timberline Lodge on the side of Mt. Hood. In 2013 National Geographic named Timberline’s Columbia River Gorge hiking tour a “Trip of a Lifetime.”
History of the Columbia River Gorge
The Columbia Gorge was the corridor through which Lewis and Clark traveled to reach the Pacific and the avenue by which they began their long journey home. Even though the expedition finally ended hopes of an all-water route across the continent, the information they gathered and documented, along with their reports and illustrations of the vast resources of the Pacific Northwest provided the inspiration for the tide of western expansion and settlement that followed. By the mid-19th century, almost 12,000 pioneers had migrated to the Oregon Territory.
