The Columbia
River Gorge 
Most of these photos are from a tour I led in 1997. We spent Friday night in East Portland at the old County Poor Farm, which has been converted to a hotel/restaurant/brewpub and distillery. Saturday morning we headed east up the Columbia River Gorge. It was raining when we started but, typically, the further east we got the drier it became.
The Scenic Highway up the Gorge is a beautiful motorcycle road, winding to the top of the basalt cliffs and twisting back down to the river side. Carved rock guardrails compliment the sheer basalt cliffs. Waterfalls plunge down the face of the canyon and wildflowers brighten the forest lined pavement. We round Crown Point on our way back down to the river.
We
passed Multnomah Falls and crossed the Columbia River on the Bridge of the Gods,
a steel span where, according to Indian legend, a natural stone arch once stood.
We
followed the highway up river along the Washington side of the river.
After a brief stop in Husum for lunch, we crossed the toll bridge at Hood River, where we spent the night.
Sunday morning
we continued our journey east, up the Gorge. A short hop on 
I-84
brought us to Mosier where we took old route 30 up over the cliffs to The Dalles.
From The Dalles we picked up a pioneer route on the cliffs above the Indian village of Celilo.
At
Biggs Junction we crossed the bridge into Washington State and turned to the
west, following Dalles Mountain road over the crest of the ridge and back to the
river again.
All photos and articles Copyright© Vernon Wade 2005 unless otherwise noted