If you're heading to a show at the Gorge this summer and plan to
camp on-site, be sure to be prepared -- mentally and physically. Here
are our top tips for camping at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash.
May 2, 2008
STEVENSON -- You need to look near and far to fully appreciate spring hiking in the Columbia River Gorge.
What grabs your eye immediately are the expansive textures of a precipitous chasm created millions of years ago by basaltic lava flows and burnished into its current form by epic glacial floods 9,000 to 12,000 years ago.
However, if you focus your vision near at hand, you'll also notice a variety of colors, say the rose-purple fairy-slipper blossoms of calypso orchids, or the showy yellow blooms of balsamroot.
By Greg Johnston | May 11, 2006
Short Trips
I've visited the Columbia River Gorge several times but never managed to tour what many tourists have touted over the years as the most scenic part of this geologic wonder. That would be the stretch on the Oregon side beginning at Cascade Locks (near the Bonneville Lock and Dam) and ending at Crown Point (Vista House) on the historic, narrow, winding Columbia River Highway.
By Jeff Larsen | April 13, 2006
Short Trips
About as far south in Central Washington as you can get, Goldendale is not exactly what I would call the perfect tourist destination. During summer this part of the state is hot, dusty and mostly agricultural, with no resorts or even a major motel/hotel. Winters are harsh at best.
Regardless, Goldendale does have its claim to fame -- an observatory, featuring one of the nation's largest public telescopes. Turns out it's also one of the most popular tourist draws in the region.
By Jeff Larsen | August 11, 2005
Whether it's thousands of shorebirds rising and twisting in perfect sync above the Grays Harbor mudflats or a lone Eurasian thrush lost in an Olympia subdivision, the same chorus of hushed human voices fills the air.
It's a universal reaction — a long, communal inward gasp of awe at the unexpected beauty of the natural world.
"I don't know what the deep magic is," said Bill Tweit, a leading regional birder. "It's something about flight, but it's also something about color. Just the magic of life and creation."
By Diane Brooks | April 28, 2005
TROUTDALE, Ore. — There's a "new" motoring adventure for visitors to Oregon.
It is the Mount Hood Scenic Byway — a 105-mile-long route from Troutdale, just east of Portland, past Mount Hood to the Columbia River Gorge and the orchards of the Hood River Valley.
The byway's network of highways and country roads has been in place for years, although now it's being pieced together — officially — as a collection of scenic and historic treasures.
By Stanton H. Patty | April 28, 2005
In all my painting trips this year, I have not found an area to rival the Columbia River Gorge for demonstrating Washington state's wild diversity. In about an hour's drive through the gorge my brush moved across my palette from the blue green of fir-shrouded slopes to rich ochre mesas toasting in the sun.
By Paul Schmid | October 8, 2004
Short Trips
MOUNT HOOD, Ore. - When President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated Timberline Lodge in September 1937, he praised the skilled workers who assembled the extraordinary building in record time under the auspices of a federal Depression-era work program.
Just 40 miles away, on the banks of the Columbia River in Hood River, Ore., the once proud Columbia Gorge Hotel, which opened with much fanfare in 1921, languished at its spectacular site as a retirement home during most of the Depression. It wasn't until 1977 that work began to restore its original luster.
By Jeff Larsen | December 11, 2003
Short Trips
WHITE SALMON -- Spring began here last Saturday at 11 a.m. in the same way it does in a lot of other small Washington state towns -- with a parade.
Banner and flags proudly held high, Cub Scout Pack 384 resolutely led a noisy parade up Jewett Boulevard to the city park. The following ensemble included a fire engine, emergency vehicles, hot rods, prancing flower-covered horses, and a small marching band.
By Jeff Larsen | May 22, 2003
Short Trips
STEVENSON -- It rained. Then, just for good measure, it rained some more. The rain wasn't the petty, steady mist and fog that often settle into the Columbia Gorge near Stevenson this time of year. Late last week it rained steadily and very heavily -- more than four inches in a 24-hour period, according to the weather service. The fog even stuck around to add insult to injury.
By Jeff Larsen | February 6, 2003
