Western Expedition Stop 12: Columbia River Highway

I feel like this “stop” on our roadtrip really is just Oregon in general, but we spent the most time visiting the historic Columbia River Highway. After disembarking our cruise ship, we drove to Portland for lunch, then through the Columbia River Gorge, then on to middle-of-nowhere Pendleton. I do NOT recommend this plan of action! It was way too much to fit in one day, and this area deserves more of your time.

Cruise Disembarkation

Because we had used a “park & cruise” package before our cruise, our car was still parked at the Hotel Nexus and we had to rely on the hotel shuttle to pick us up. The only problem with this arrangement was that the shuttle only had two pickup times, early morning, and early afternoon.

Had we been planning to stick around Seattle longer, we could have used the later pickup time and let the cruise staff carry our luggage off, which we could claim later. But since I had already booked a hotel 6 hours away in Pendleton, (and also jammed a visit to Columbia River Gorge into our day) we needed to get off the ship in the first shift. What can I say, it looked good on paper several months before. 😕

Exiting With Our Own Luggage

Exiting first meant carrying our own luggage off the ship. And at this point in our journey, we had the maximum amount of gear with us–extra garment bags with formal wear, our heaviest coats and boots, etc. In short, this part was no fun.

We woke up early to eat at THE most packed breakfast of our cruise, then waited with our mounds of luggage in a lounge one deck below our room. We got off pretty quickly and had to lug all our stuff through the long cruise terminal. But once out on the street, we only had to wait 20 minutes for our shuttle to come and we gleefully handed over our bags.

Portland

After picking our car up at the hotel, we drove 3 hours south to Portland, Oregon in time to have an early lunch. Dad said he wanted a burger, so I found a place called Killer Burger near our route. I had hoped to get at least a little taste of Portland, and this place was pretty good and reasonably quirky, plus we could sit outside and look around a little. The burgers are huge and really greasy (I think bacon is in their burger mix) so it was a little too heavy for me.

Columbia River Gorge

Thirty minutes east of Portland, you find yourself deep in nature in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. Turning right on Corbett Hill Road, we began driving the historic Columbia River Highway.

Columbia River Scenic Highway

I’ll admit, when I was reading about this in advance, I thought this scenic highway would be much deeper in nature. But in reality, it parallels closely with the main highway 84. Many of the main attractions along the historic highway have direct exits off the major road. And while that is convenient, it doesn’t have that feeling of “getting away from it all” that I thought it would have.

Women’s Forum Overlook

All the same, it is a beautiful drive! Especially the first part up into the hillside. You come first to the Women’s Forum Scenic Viewpoint, which is the perfect place to view the river and gorge with the Vista House in view. It’s the perfect introduction to the experience.

Vista House

Next up is the beautiful Vista House, a hexagonal overlook built in 1918. Made out of marble and panes of opalized glass, it has a beautiful domed copper ceiling and green glazed roof tiles. Stairs go up to an outside observation level and down to a small museum and gift shop. There are also bathrooms here, water fountains, and coffee for sale. Parking is limited immediately around Vista House, but there is more nearby.

Larch Mountain Road

We didn’t drive this road, but between the Women’s Forum Overlook and the Vista House, there is Larch Mountain Road, a 14.5 mile drive up to a viewpoint with views of 5 surrounding mountains: Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Jefferson, and Mt. Adams. The road is currently closed due to a 2017 fire, but they plan for it to be open by late spring this year.

Multnomah and Other Waterfalls

The Colubbia River Highway takes you past waterfall after waterfall, all practically right on the side of the road. Most have steep paved trails up to higher sections of the falls or to overlooks and there are several trails that go deeper into the forest as well. Find a list of all trails here, but keep in mind that several trails are currently closed due to the massive Eagle Creek fire from 2017.

There are 8 marked falls, each with parking areas. From Vista House, you’ll come to Latourell Falls, Shepherd’s Dell, Bridal Veil Falls, Wahkeena Falls, Multnomah Falls, Oneonta Falls, Horsetail Falls, and Elowah Falls. There are even more falls if you climb up behind the ones at the road, like Fairy Falls above Wahkeena or Dutchman, Wiesendanger, and Ecola Falls above Multnomah.

But by far the biggest, prettiest, most impressive and most popular waterfall is Multnomah Falls. At 620 feet, it is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon. It’s in two stages, with a picturesque bridge at the break. At the base, there is plenty of parking, its own exit interchange off highway 84, and a lodge with a gift shop, ice cream, and coffee.

We visited on a Saturday and it was crazy crowded! I am so used to waterfalls being something that you hike at least a mile or two to see. Here, it is literally steps from the sidewalk. Not at all what I pictured! It has clearly been a tourist attraction from early on. Even so, it really is worth a stop. It’s glorious.

Pendleton

After leaving the scenic highway and rejoining 84, we drove another 3 hours to our hotel in Pendleton. I’ll talk a little more about Pendleton in another post (not that there is exactly tons to do there.)

What We Should Have Done Instead

This day turned out to be far too packed to be really enjoyable, and the parents weren’t terribly happy with my schedule. To carry our heavy bags off the cruise ship, drive 3-4 hours, then quickly view some beautiful waterfalls without going any deeper into the area was frustrating. Then we drove 3 more hours to a hotel with no elevator and had to carry all of our luggage (again!) up a set of stairs to our second-floor room. It wasn’t very fun.

If we had more time, it would have been really nice to spend an extra day in Seattle before the cruise to hit a few of the highlights–Pike’s Peak Market, the Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center.

Then after the cruise, we could have taken our time getting off the ship and collecting our car, have lunch in Seattle, then drive 3 hours down to Portland, and have dinner and our next hotel there. Then we could have spent a whole day exploring the Columbia River Gorge area plus Mt. Hood and other fun things to see before landing back in Portland for the evening and finally heading on the next day.

That sounds a little more relaxed, doesn’t it? I think at the time, I was trying to get back so that I didn’t take any time off work. But a few unpaid days would have been worth not having such a hectic day after the cruise.

Next Up

I’ll talk more about the other fun things there are to do along this corridor that we had to miss.