Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge
Our final walk-up destination this mellow fall day was Multnomah Falls, the most popular scenic attraction in the State of Oregon.
We began our passage into the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area after stair stepping downriver through the locks at John Day and The Dalles dams. Rafts of greater scaup and Barrow’s and common goldeneye broke into flight and streaked around the Sea Bird as we passed on a silken river surface. The Columbia River is the natural pathway for scores of waterfowl coming from the interior to winter on estuaries along the mild Pacific coastline.
Days so calm are rare on this stretch of the Columbia because it is the wind funnel that cuts the Cascade Range.
At The Dalles we boarded buses to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center that combines all the stories of the Columbia Gorge. This area held Celilo Falls where Lewis and Clark described a gathering of some 10,000 natives come to fish and to trade from the far corners of the Pacific Northwest. Celilo was drowned and the river harnessed for hydropower, inland navigation, irrigation and flood control as well as a recent wind surfing and sail boarding boom.
Hood River, our next town on the drive through the Gorge, boasts it’s the wind surfing capitol of the world. The jump in realty values is a measure of that claim.
On arrival at Multnomah Falls we examined coho salmon nearing the end of their life cycle after spawning below the falls. Their bodies were brick red and the fins worn and white with fungus. Their reserves were spent fighting for choice spawning sites and mates and from excavating redds or nests in the gravel. These were mint bright beauties a month ago on return from the sea.
The light faded across the Gorge walls and 620-foot Multnomah Falls when the last guests returned from a trail hike to the upper lip of the falls.
The Corps of Discovery wrote in the journals about the many falls along this Gorge: “Down these heights frequently descend the most beautiful cascades, one of which, a large creek, throws itself over a perpendicular rock…”
Our final walk-up destination this mellow fall day was Multnomah Falls, the most popular scenic attraction in the State of Oregon.
We began our passage into the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area after stair stepping downriver through the locks at John Day and The Dalles dams. Rafts of greater scaup and Barrow’s and common goldeneye broke into flight and streaked around the Sea Bird as we passed on a silken river surface. The Columbia River is the natural pathway for scores of waterfowl coming from the interior to winter on estuaries along the mild Pacific coastline.
Days so calm are rare on this stretch of the Columbia because it is the wind funnel that cuts the Cascade Range.
At The Dalles we boarded buses to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center that combines all the stories of the Columbia Gorge. This area held Celilo Falls where Lewis and Clark described a gathering of some 10,000 natives come to fish and to trade from the far corners of the Pacific Northwest. Celilo was drowned and the river harnessed for hydropower, inland navigation, irrigation and flood control as well as a recent wind surfing and sail boarding boom.
Hood River, our next town on the drive through the Gorge, boasts it’s the wind surfing capitol of the world. The jump in realty values is a measure of that claim.
On arrival at Multnomah Falls we examined coho salmon nearing the end of their life cycle after spawning below the falls. Their bodies were brick red and the fins worn and white with fungus. Their reserves were spent fighting for choice spawning sites and mates and from excavating redds or nests in the gravel. These were mint bright beauties a month ago on return from the sea.
The light faded across the Gorge walls and 620-foot Multnomah Falls when the last guests returned from a trail hike to the upper lip of the falls.
The Corps of Discovery wrote in the journals about the many falls along this Gorge: “Down these heights frequently descend the most beautiful cascades, one of which, a large creek, throws itself over a perpendicular rock…”
