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| The beauty of the Columbia River Gorge in November 2017, two months after the fire. |
September 2, 2017, started off wonderfully in the Columbia
River Gorge. It was the beginning of
Labor Day weekend in one of the nation’s most beautiful scenic areas. Located just an hour east of Portland, Oregon,
this was a busy time for the area’s $100 million-a-year tourism industry. They had been hurt that winter with 8 feet of
snow falling in an area that usually gets just inches. Interstate 84 was closed and schools and
businesses had to shut down for as much as two weeks.
But now on Sept. 2, the weather was beautiful, people were
hiking, biking, wind surfing, eating locally sourced foods, drinking craft beer
at outdoor cafes and just enjoying the incredible beauty of a wilderness area
along a river lined with cliffs, thick forests and waterfalls.
And then at 4 p.m., a fire was reported in Eagle Creek. Near the village of Cascade Locks, some teenagers
had been throwing fireworks off a waterfall into the dry forest below. By morning, the fire they started grew to
3,000 acres. With favorable winds, over
the next two days the Eagle Creek Fire blossomed into a raging inferno, so huge that at one point
it leaped across the Columbia River, sending tongues of flame into the wooded
hillsides on the other side of the waterway in the state of Washington.
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| More than 48,000 acres of forest would eventually be consumed by the fire |
Eventually, 48,000 acres of forest would burn. The entire town of Cascade Locks had to be
evacuated, along with hundreds of other residents throughout the gorge. Surrounded by flames, 153 hikers were cut off
by the fire and had to be rescued. I-84
was closed. Clouds of smoke closed
schools in nearby Portland, where more than an inch of ash fell on the streets.
Fighting the fire rang up of a bill of
$20 million.
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| The falls three years ago, before the fire. |
And then the fire raced to Multnomah Falls, the highest
waterfall in Oregon. A national icon,
the 611-foot waterfall had at its base a famous lodge built in 1925 that
attracted 1.5 million visitors a year.
Dozens of volunteers came and heroically fought the blaze throughout the
night, wetting the building’s roof and soaking a 100-yard perimeter around
it. By morning, though the fire consumed
a wood bridge below the falls and many trees, the historic lodge was saved.
The Gorge Today
So how much damage was done in the end? Amazingly, the Columbia River Gorge is today
a triumph of both nature and man. On a
trip through the gorge in early November 2017, barely two months after the
blaze, there is hardly much sign of the catastrophic event. Sadly, Multnomah Falls Lodge and access to
the falls is closed indefinitely, mostly because of damage to the roads. You can still see the falls, as beautiful as
ever, as you race by a vantage point on I-84.
Some other viewpoints and hiking trails are temporarily inaccessible,
but compared to the vast amount of wilderness recreation available here, it is
very small. The towns are completely open,
I-84 is open, and the burn area is hardly noticeable compared to the rich
forest land surrounding it. In fact,
many environmentalists are saying the fire, which burned up the trees rather than torching the ground below, is just part of
nature’s evolution. So here’s a review
of just some of the many pleasures open and available in the gorge and Mount
Hood areas, starting with ground zero where the fire started.
Cascade Locks and the Bridge of the Gods
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| Bridge of the Gods in November 2017. |
The village of Cascade Locks is where the 2,659-mile long
Pacific Crest Trails crosses the Columbia River over the very pretty Bridge of
the Gods. A poignant scene was filmed in
the Reese Witherspoon movie, Wild,
was filmed on the bridge. During the
fire, all residents of the town were forced to evacuate, crossing the bridge as
flames approached the village from both directions. You’d never know it today. The bridge is as
beautiful ever, and all businesses are open.
The Best Western Plus Columbia River Inn at the base of the bridge is a
pleasant place to stay with balconies overlooking river traffic of barges and
pleasure craft.
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| Thunder Island Brewing Co. |
Indian legend says there was once a bridge of land here
over the Columbia with a huge lake behind it. Well, for once, an Indian legend actually
makes some sense and is backed by geologists, who say there was a land bridge here
that eventually washed away, helping to create the spectacular gorge. You can walk over the manmade Bridge of Gods
to Washington, but there’s no pedestrian path on the road. Better is to have a beer, while you still
can, at Thunder Island Brewing on the banks of the river. They’re moving into town, unfortunately, but their
Rolling Thunder Pale ale and other craft beers will be just as good in the new
location.
A visit to the gallery and studio of Heather Soderberg / is
worth a journey. You’ll be hearing a lot
about her in the near future. She’s the
first woman to own a bronze foundry and is currently working on a 55-foot-long,
12-ton cast bronze statue of an eagle that will be the largest eagle sculpture
in history. Bits and pieces of it currently
fill the studio, and when finished, it will tour the country. In the gallery, they’ll explain how bronze
casts are made, but good luck understanding it.
Enough to say, it’s impressive to look at.
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| The head alone is as tall as a man. |
The Cascade LocksAle House across the street is a cozy place for dinner with pizza and salmon
chowder. It’s a favorite hangout for
people walking the Pacific Coast Trail.
It must be lonely on the trail. The
hikers we met were a talkative bunch. As
an ice-breaker, ask them what their “trail name” is and how they got it, but
make sure you have a beer first. It’s
liable to be a long story. You’ll
certainly want to see the movie Wild
before visiting the pub.
Troutdale
This colorful little village is the western gateway to
the gorge and a good base for touring the area.
Stop by the historic Barn Exhibit Hall, which is actually not historic at
all. The cleverly built “barn” museum is
brand new, but designed to look like it’s been there forever. Currently, there’s an exhibit on the history
of the 75-mile-long Columbia River Highway, the first highway in the U.S. built
as a scenic road, and amazingly, the first road to have a white stripe down the
center. You can see why they took such
care to divide the road when you drive on portions of it as its twists and turns
with sheer cliffs alternating from side to side. It’s scenic and scary. When it was built between 1913 to 1922, it
was also an engineering marvel. It still
is.
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| Pretty Troutdale is a mix of colors and pastels to mix with the dramatic skies often seen over the Gorge. |
Though it was replaced by I-84, bits of the historic road
are still open. Sections between
Troutdale and Hood River have been closed temporarily by the fire, but there is
no impact from north of Hood River to The Dalles, our next stop.
Mosier
Mosier is picture postcard of a little place with a
scenic park overlooking the river, the Rack & Cloth cidery, and most
important, Route 30 Classics, which has ice cream, espresso and electric bike
rentals. And what a place to rent an
electric bike!
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| Electric bike rentals for a trip on the Columbia River Highway |
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| A few from a cutout in the tunnel looks down on to I-84 and the Columbia River. |
Hood River to the
Dalles
Both Hood River and The Dalles are cool and quirky little
towns worth a visit. Hood River is home
to Full Sail Brewery and a sloping main street lined with shops, galleries, and
pubs. This is the ground zero,
recreational central of the Columbia River Gorge, and everyone is biking,
hiking, sailboarding or doing something else to make you feel guilty if you’re
just hanging out drinking craft beer.
Well, not that guilty. This is
Oregon, after all, and there are plenty of other people just hanging out.
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| Hood River is a fun and quirky little town. |
There’s a little more history at The Dalles, which has an
1856 fort (just a house is left, but nice grounds) and Klindt’s Booksellers, which
has been hawking books since 1870 and is worth a journey to explore their maps
and local recreation guidebooks. Both
towns, in keeping with this area of Oregon, have breweries and wineries and,
increasingly, distilleries. And did we
mention marijuana is legal?
And Now for
Something Completely Different
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| Farming communities like Dufur and 300 days of sunshine are always just a short drive from the Gorge |
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| The Resort at the Mountain is nestled near Mount Hood and offers a completely different forest landscape. |
South of Troutdale takes you on the western fringes of
Hwy. 26, which (along with Hwy. 35) is called “The Fruit Loop,” as it curves and
twists around the base of 11,249-foot Mount Hood, passing dozens and dozens of
orchards, forests, rain forests, timberline, snow-covered mountains and rivers. The Resort at the Mountain just east of Sandy
is one of Oregon’s premier lodges with a 27-hole golf course, luxury spa,
hiking trails, two restaurants and bars, and best of all, fireplaces in the
rooms. On a November afternoon at
twilight, with a fire going and college football playing, we noticed someone on
the patio peering into our floor to ceiling glass door. It was three baby deer.
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| Bob Denman has been making hand forged gardening tools for 30 years at Red Pig Tools in Boring, OR |
For a true Oregon evening, head to the nearby Skyway Bar and Grill, a real mountain roadhouse (the address is Zigzag Mile Post 43) that
was built by hand in 1972 and is today filled with art, antiques, live music,
craft beer and the smell of barbeque and smoked meats.
And don’t miss the most exciting photo op of the region –
Boring, Oregon. They make the most of
the odd name choice with a Boring Brewery and Boring Winery (in the same
building!) and lots of opportunities to take photos of the word “Boring.” It’s cute.
But nowhere cuter than at the blacksmith shop Red Pig Tools, where for 30
years Bob Denman, a semi-retired advertising executive, has been hand-forging gardening
tools. Bob, a life-long gardener, will
tell you, there’s only one rule for weeding and that’s King Harrod’s rule: “Kill them while they’re babies!”
He has researched old garden tools and found
that any modern tool that does two tasks is half as efficient at each. In his blacksmith shop, he hand forges old
forgotten tools for special tasks (like weeding between cracks of patio
tiles). The tools are beautiful (if
somewhat medieval looking). Bob has been
dealing with customers and perfecting his comedy-set for 30 years and if he’s
in the shop, he has a 15-minute routine that is perfect, fun, educational and
worth a journey. At a time where “fire”
is not exactly a friendly word in Oregon, you’ll have a lot of laughs around
his flaming forge and come away with a lifelong tool and memento of this
slightly wacky – but gorgeous – part of the state.
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| Nearby Wildwood Recreation Site has a wetland boardwalk down to the Salmon River |
FOR MORE INFO, ITINERARIES AND SUGGESTIONS: Hood-Gorge.com
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| The elusive and spectacular Mount Hood is visible sometimes and sometimes, like our four day trip in Nov. 2017, not. |
