I'm just gonna dive right in with my favorite place we visited while in Portland, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. It actually turned in to an impromptu trip on our first day out in Portland, which makes me love it even more! As a recap, I traveled out to Portland last month with my best friend Ashlyn to help her apartment hunt because she moved to Portland yesterday [hooray Ashlyn!] We were supposed to see a few apartments on our first day out there but they all ended up cancelling on us so that left us with a day to explore. We were downtown at Pioneer Courthouse Square where they have one of those posts with arrows that tell you how far away specific landmarks are, and Ashlyn noticed the Gorge was only about 20 miles away. So when we saw all we could see at the Square and the mall she said, "hey do you want to drive out to the falls?" I was down before she could even finish the sentence!
There are two ways to see the Columbia River Gorge, you can hike it or you can drive down historic highway 30 like we did. Historic highway 30 is also a part of the Oregon Trail. Highway 30 also goes all the way across the United States. It starts all the way out in Atlantic City, NJ and ends at the Pacific Ocean in Washington. Highway 30 ALSO goes through our college town of Ames, Iowa. US routes fascinate me and it made it that much more special that we use to drive a stretch of this highway all the time when we lived back in Iowa.
The Vista House was simply created for being an ideal rest stop along highway 30. It is extremely high up and overlooks the Columbia River in to Washington state. The fog is unbelievable. It's incredibly peaceful up there and I literally could have just sat on a ledge for hours just relaxing and taking it all in.
The first waterfall you'll happen upon a few miles up the road from the Vista House are the Latourell Falls. They are a plunge fall and drop 249 feet. There is a nice little stop point for you to get off the road to park and snap some photos. You can also hike up the stairs to get a closer look.
There is so much to look at along highway 30. It's a long windy road that goes through all the redwoods, along the river, and through the mountains. I actually took a few videos so be on the lookout for those on YouTube in the near future!
The big guy that tends to steal the show is this one right here called Multnomah Falls. It was created when massive floods scoured out of the Columbia River leaving the falls to hang over the mountainside. The upper falls actually recede faster than the lower falls due to the type of rock on the mountain. Multnomah Falls are also a plunge waterfall and they drop 620 feet. A slight word of caution about this area though, there tends to be a lot of theft. Make sure if you drive to not leave anything in plain sight in your car because thieves will break in, grab what they can, and run. Hide your stuff or deal with taking it with you and hang on to it at all times.
Anyways, you know those moments in life when something is so beautiful you start to tear up from disbelief? That's exactly what the Gorge was for me. You might cry and you'll probably get a little wet from all the mist but that's okay...it's part of the experience. So basically what I'm trying to say is don't worry about looking nice for pictures or trying to save your hair from the fizz that'll probably happen from getting wet, just enjoy this incredible place and experience. Our world has so many beautiful places in it. Take advantage of this world we live in and experience as much as you can. That's what it's intended for.
Where is the most beautiful place you've ever been in your life?
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Follow along on Instagram for day to day adventures and throwbacks from all our trips!