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The Columbia River Gorge

By: Falcon Guides

No sooner had Lewis and Clark made it through Celilo Falls than the corps was faced with The Dalles, where the river again narrowed and spilled over a great series of rapids. Here, the white men amazed the local Indians by riding their canoes and much of the cargo straight through the Short Narrows. Three miles farther downriver, the party reached the Long Narrows and again shot the rapids. The exhausted corps then camped several nights at the “Rock Fort” site now surrounded by The Dalles’s riverfront industrial area. To get there, take Webber Street on the west side of town north to 1st Street. Turn right and follow 1st Street to the site, which still bears much resemblance to Clark’s description of “a high point of rocks.” A mural at 401 East 2nd Street in The Dalles offers an artist’s interpretation of the explorers’ visit.

Once they passed the Short and Long Narrows of The Dalles, Lewis and Clark had just one major obstacle remaining: the Cascades of the Columbia. On the way there, the party enjoyed several days of relatively calm waters between The Dalles and Hood River. But although the water was placid, relations with the region’s Indians were not; in fact, tensions rose higher here than in any place since the Teton Sioux country back in South Dakota.

Unlike the friendly bands at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia, many of the Indians farther downriver partook in thievery, deception, and begging, perhaps influenced by their past experiences with early white traders near the mouth of the Columbia. (It was in the mid-Columbia region that Lewis and Clark first saw wool clothing and blankets, powder flasks, and guns, all signs of other whites preceding them from the west.) Moreover, many of the Columbia River people were infested with fleas or lice, afflictions they passed on to the newcomers. As the corps moved through the Celilo-Dalles stretch, either Twisted Hair or Tetoharsky of the Nez Perce heard a rumor that one of the local tribes planned to massacre the white men. This story may have sprung from the Nez Perce’s own mistrust of the Columbia River tribes—both men decided to leave the corps and return home after the passage through The Dalles—but the captains decided not to take any chances. With the local Indians watching, the men made a great show of examining their stores of weapons and ammunition, making sure all were in proper working order.

The Corps of Discovery successfully made it through the last water barrier, the Cascades of the Columbia, on November 1–2, 1805. The rapids here were known as the Upper and Lower Cascades; Clark came to call the upper rapids “the Great Chute.” The baggage was portaged through this area, but the empty canoes once again made it through the rapids unscathed. Soon after the passage, Clark noted in his journal the presence of “a remarkable high rock . . . about 800 feet high and 400 yards round.” He named it Beacon Rock, and it is indeed the world’s second-largest freestanding rock monolith, second only to Gibraltar.

The Dalles area marks the traveler’s entrance into the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, the first region so designated in the United States. Quite simply, the Gorge is an area of sublime scenic splendor and recreational choices so abundant it would take weeks to exhaust the possibilities. Once again, the traveler has a choice of driving Oregon’s I-84 or WA 14 through the Gorge (with the U.S. Highway 197 bridge at The Dalles offering the last free river crossing until the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area). Both sides have plenty to offer.
Traveling The Lewis And Clark Trail

The Dalles History
Those Magnificent Waterfalls