Inbound on the Columbia River
The golden sunshine of a late autumn day was our welcome companion throughout this relaxing day as we cruised up the mighty Columbia River. We awoke near The Dalles, Oregon to a clear view of Mount Hood’s distinctive snow-capped peak and surrounded by the tremendous red-brown columnar flows of basalt that define this entire area east of the Cascade mountain range. Covered by basalts, scoured by floods and starved for rain, the bare bones of this starkly beautiful landscape lie visible or covered thinly by a sparse blanket of golden grasses. I find the unexpected contrast between the lush green forests of yesterday’s western side to this near desert of the east caught behind the rain shadow of the mountains to be quite startling.
Our day passed comfortably between waiting for locks, watching the river traffic of wheat and chip barges move up and down the channel and enjoying stories of the remarkable adventure of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery by our wonderful historian, Jim Hendrix. Later in the day, naturalist Bette Lu Krause brought tales of the triumphs and troubles of Pacific salmon.
The rosy cast of late afternoon was punctuated by a delightful taste of many of the fine wines grown and produced in this area with delicious samples of some local specialty foods. Our first day’s river passage has indeed been pleasant.
The golden sunshine of a late autumn day was our welcome companion throughout this relaxing day as we cruised up the mighty Columbia River. We awoke near The Dalles, Oregon to a clear view of Mount Hood’s distinctive snow-capped peak and surrounded by the tremendous red-brown columnar flows of basalt that define this entire area east of the Cascade mountain range. Covered by basalts, scoured by floods and starved for rain, the bare bones of this starkly beautiful landscape lie visible or covered thinly by a sparse blanket of golden grasses. I find the unexpected contrast between the lush green forests of yesterday’s western side to this near desert of the east caught behind the rain shadow of the mountains to be quite startling.
Our day passed comfortably between waiting for locks, watching the river traffic of wheat and chip barges move up and down the channel and enjoying stories of the remarkable adventure of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery by our wonderful historian, Jim Hendrix. Later in the day, naturalist Bette Lu Krause brought tales of the triumphs and troubles of Pacific salmon.
The rosy cast of late afternoon was punctuated by a delightful taste of many of the fine wines grown and produced in this area with delicious samples of some local specialty foods. Our first day’s river passage has indeed been pleasant.
