A viewpoint on the climb looking west down the Columbia River Gorge — toward Crown Point and the Vista House, the Oregon peaks, and the islands and wildlife refuge in the river below.
Stop here a moment and look west — downriver, the way the water is heading toward the sea — because the view is really opening up now, and it's one of the finest in the whole gorge.
That's the Columbia rolling away below you. Far off downstream, on a clear day, you can pick out the high green headland of Crown Point, with a little round stone building on top of it — that's the Vista House, a famous overlook on the Oregon side. Nearer in, those steep points rising across the river are Munra Point and Nesmith Point, over on the Oregon shore. And directly below you, out in the river, lie the low green islands — Pierce Island and Ives Island — and the marshy Pierce National Wildlife Refuge, a protected haven that's closed to people, so the herons and the sandpipers get it all to themselves.
Catch your breath right here. You've earned this one — and it only gets bigger the higher you go.
Photo: Chris Light · CC BY-SA 4.0
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