Montana

 Home  >>  Oregon  >>  Cascade Locks  >>  Contemporary Article

Touring: Cascade Locks and Scenic Drives

By: Falcon Guides

If you visit only one dam on your Lewis and Clark journey, the Bonneville Dam is a good choice. It has visitor facilities on both the Washington and Oregon sides, and each tells the important role hydropower plays in the Northwest economy. The Washington-side visitor center also has an exhibit explaining the archaeological dig of villages noted in the Lewis and Clark journals of October 1805. But the centers’ most popular exhibits are doubtless the fish-viewing windows. Children especially enjoy watching salmon swim through the maze-like fish ladders that have been erected to help fish past the dams. Here, people employed as fish counters sit by a window all day and keep tabs on how many fish swim by. This close to the Pacific, the numbers are high. But the salmon have many more dams to pass before they reach their spawning grounds upriver. For wild salmon, life in the Columbia River is more than ever an uphill struggle for survival.

Just west of Bonneville, I-84 travelers have the opportunity to leave the freeway and drive the Columbia River Scenic Highway, a 22-mile masterpiece of engineering that provides close-up access to the famous Gorge waterfalls, as well as to Crown Point, a promontory 733 feet above the river.

Each set of falls has its own character and beauty. Horsetail Falls unfurls like a banner, while Wahkeena Falls cascades in a mass of curlicues. Multnomah Falls is world-famous and easily accessed from the interstate (exit 31), as is Bridal Veil Falls. And that’s just the start. Other falls can be reached by trails. The Gorge is a hiking paradise, with a multitude of paths snaking through shady side canyons and up mountain grades. For hiking information, stop by any Forest Service office or the Crown Point Visitor Center on the historic river route, where a computer is programmed to match trails with hikers’ interests and abilities. A few favorites include the Eagle Creek Trail to Punch Bowl Falls (Exit 41); Dog Mountain Trail, a challenging hike that starts between Bingen and Stevenson on the Washington side; and the Oneonta Gorge. Rooster Rock State Park near Troutdale is popular with swimmers and windsurfers, with a separate nude sunbathing area designated about a mile to the east. Lewis and Clark named Rooster Rock and camped in the area on November 2, 1805.

The scenic route ends at Troutdale just east of Portland. Nearby is Lewis and Clark State Park, where a self-guiding nature trail showcases the local plants chronicled by the expedition. The small state park is near the Sandy River, where the expedition stopped November 3 on their final push to the Pacific. They found the river silty and shallow, and when Clark tried to wade across, he found the bottom like quicksand. So the captains named the waterway “Quicksand River” and explored along its shore for about a mile and a half before returning to make camp on Government Island in the Columbia. On the trip home, the corps again camped near the mouth of the Sandy and several men explored about 6 miles up the river. They learned from local Indians they had already passed the major tributary of the Columbia they had been seeking—the Willamette River—so Clark and several men backtracked to explore 10 miles up the Willamette from modern-day Portland.

On the Washington side, WA 14 remains an absolute delight, dominated by interesting little towns and stupendous views of Mount Hood. The Cascades are strikingly different from the Rocky Mountains, and they must have seemed strange to Lewis and Clark. The corps had grown used to the jagged, sawtooth contours of the Rockies, which frequently stretched out one ridge after another. The Cascade peaks, on the other hand, stand alone. These snowy sentinels seem to almost hover in midair, dwarfing everything around them. (Remember the average elevation in the valleys here is less than 100 feet above sea level, unlike the high valleys of the Rockies where towns sit at 3,000 to 5,000 feet.) Mount Hood and its Cascade cousins are, of course, volcanic in nature, thus their conical shapes and isolated placement.

If the Columbia River Gorge is the nation’s top sailboarding area, then Doug’s Beach State Park east of Lyle, Washington, is the sport’s epicenter. Hood River, the hip town downriver, may be where people work, eat, and sleep, but Doug’s Beach is where they play. People interested in learning sailboarding will find several Gorge-area businesses eager to help. And although Doug’s Beach is the place to see and be seen, many other less-crowded areas are better bets for novice sailboarders as well as for people who crave a more solitary sailing experience.
The twin towns of Bingen and White Salmon sit right across the river (and a toll bridge) from Hood River. Bingen has a winery, Mont Elise, with tours and tastings. The White Salmon River is popular for rafting, kayaking, and fishing. Both towns boast a number of German-style buildings, including the Glockenspiel Tower in White Salmon.
Carson is a gateway to Mount Saint Helens, as well as the site of Carson Hot Springs. Here, visitors are treated to hot mineral baths, massages, and towel wraps. Lodging, meals, and RV hookups are available, too. The best time to visit is on a weekday; folks from Portland and even Seattle crowd in on the weekends.
Bonneville Dam’s Washington-side visitor center is situated between Stevenson and North Bonneville. The latter is a planned community in every sense of the word: the entire town was moved to its present location before construction began on Bonneville Dam’s second powerhouse. The new town was dedicated in 1978.
Beacon Rock, just west of Bonneville Dam, is truly immense, to use one of the captains’ favorite words. It was here Lewis and Clark first saw the effects of the tide as it rolled in from the Pacific. They didn’t yet know they were still 142 river miles from the coast!
The remnants of a volcanic core, Beacon Rock is composed of basalt and has been eroded for years by the river. As the Oregon territory was settled, the 848-foot monolith was for years known as Castle Rock, but it has reclaimed its previous name. Interestingly enough, Henry J. Biddle, a descendant of Nicholas Biddle, early editor of the Lewis and Clark journals, once owned the rock. Biddle built the first trail to its top, completing it in 1918 after two years of work.
Today’s trail is 4,500 feet long with a 15-percent grade and handrails lining most of the way. It’s possible to hike to the top in about a half-hour, but the trek isn’t recommended for people wary of heights. Advanced rock climbers are also welcome to try an ascent off the trail, but all climbers must register. Required equipment for climbers includes a hard hat, two 150-foot climbing ropes, clothes for any change in the weather, a standard rack for fifth-class climbing, rappelling equipment, proper footwear, and a headlamp for the longer routes.
Beacon Rock State Park actually overlooks the rock from the north side of WA 14. It has a small campground and picnic facilities, as well as several hiking trailheads. The picnic area just down the road from the campground affords a good view of Beacon Rock, particularly at sunrise and sunset.
For more information on activities and attractions in the Columbia River Gorge, call (509) 427-8911 (Skamania County, Washington); (800) 366-3530 (Hood River); or (800) 255-3385 (The Dalles). From Beacon Rock, continue west on hilly and winding WA 14 or backtrack to Stevenson, cross the Bridge of the Gods, and proceed west via I-84 or the Columbia River Scenic Highway.

Traveling The Lewis And Clark Trail