Columbia River Gorge

The Columbia River Gorge was carved during the Missoula Floods - a series of catastrophic ice-age floods between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago that repeatedly discharged the equivalent of 10 times the combined flow of all rivers on earth. The result is an 80-mile corridor of vertical basalt walls, hanging valleys, and over 90 named waterfalls on the Oregon side alone. Multnomah Falls - two tiers dropping a combined 620 feet - is Oregon's most visited attraction, with over 2 million visitors annually. The Historic Columbia River Highway, completed in 1922, was America's first scenic roadway, engineered with aesthetics as a primary consideration; the Vista House at Crown Point, a rotunda perched above a 730-foot cliff, is one of the most photographed buildings in Oregon. The gorge functions as a wind tunnel between the wet western Cascades and the dry eastern plateau, producing reliable strong winds at Hood River that have made it the windsurfing and kiteboarding capital of the world. The Washington side (SR-14) offers an often-overlooked perspective with Beacon Rock (second-largest monolith in North America), Cape Horn cliffs, and significantly fewer crowds.