The Dalles, Oregon
Blazing yellow big-leaf maple trees lined our afternoon walking route this crisp day in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. The highlight for many guests was their choice of a long (five mile) or a short (two mile) hike on a resurrected section of the historic Columbia River Highway between Hood River and Mosier. When the Interstate 84 route was completed, sections of the old highway were abandoned and its tunnels barricaded or backfilled with rock at the entrance.
The old highway, built between 1913 and 1917, was a bold experiment for its time in highway construction. The highway designer, Sam Lancaster, had a deeply spiritual attitude towards the environment and mankind's relationship to nature. This highway was not built for speed but for pause and reflection. It fit into the landscape and fulfilled ideas that Lancanster and his mentor, Samuel "Sam" Hill, gained when they toured Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy to study mountain highway construction before embarking on the Columbia River Highway project. They even arranged for the immigration of Italian stone masons to do the rock facing on the bridges and special arched guard barriers.
Hill was a dreamer and promoter who made his fortune in railroading and then became the lead advocate of the national Good Roads just as the auto was transforming transportation. Rather than dark tunnels through cliff sections, Lancaster had hard rock miners cut adits or windows on the river side of his tunnels. Drivers could stop, step out onto a balcony and have a soaring eagle's view of the gorge below them. Beside its technological accomplishment at the dawn of highway building in America the highway was heralded as one of the most dramatic and diverse landscapes in North America. President Teddy Roosevelt, after traveling the highway proclaimed it "an example of engineering and scenic grandeur not equaled anywhere." The historic highway section we hiked today is now restricted to pedestrians, equestrians and bicyclers.
Our day began at the western entry to the gorge where the Sea Lion cruised slowly off 620-foot Multnomah Falls. Tall Douglas fir and bold black basalt cliffs framed the second highest waterfall in North America. Lewis and Clark wrote in their journals here: "Down these heights frequently descend the most beautiful cascades, one of which throws itself over a perpendicular rock." Our ship was also a perfect vantage point for seeing Wahkeena, Misty and Horsetail falls.
Blazing yellow big-leaf maple trees lined our afternoon walking route this crisp day in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area. The highlight for many guests was their choice of a long (five mile) or a short (two mile) hike on a resurrected section of the historic Columbia River Highway between Hood River and Mosier. When the Interstate 84 route was completed, sections of the old highway were abandoned and its tunnels barricaded or backfilled with rock at the entrance.
The old highway, built between 1913 and 1917, was a bold experiment for its time in highway construction. The highway designer, Sam Lancaster, had a deeply spiritual attitude towards the environment and mankind's relationship to nature. This highway was not built for speed but for pause and reflection. It fit into the landscape and fulfilled ideas that Lancanster and his mentor, Samuel "Sam" Hill, gained when they toured Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy to study mountain highway construction before embarking on the Columbia River Highway project. They even arranged for the immigration of Italian stone masons to do the rock facing on the bridges and special arched guard barriers.
Hill was a dreamer and promoter who made his fortune in railroading and then became the lead advocate of the national Good Roads just as the auto was transforming transportation. Rather than dark tunnels through cliff sections, Lancaster had hard rock miners cut adits or windows on the river side of his tunnels. Drivers could stop, step out onto a balcony and have a soaring eagle's view of the gorge below them. Beside its technological accomplishment at the dawn of highway building in America the highway was heralded as one of the most dramatic and diverse landscapes in North America. President Teddy Roosevelt, after traveling the highway proclaimed it "an example of engineering and scenic grandeur not equaled anywhere." The historic highway section we hiked today is now restricted to pedestrians, equestrians and bicyclers.
Our day began at the western entry to the gorge where the Sea Lion cruised slowly off 620-foot Multnomah Falls. Tall Douglas fir and bold black basalt cliffs framed the second highest waterfall in North America. Lewis and Clark wrote in their journals here: "Down these heights frequently descend the most beautiful cascades, one of which throws itself over a perpendicular rock." Our ship was also a perfect vantage point for seeing Wahkeena, Misty and Horsetail falls.
