The US' Oldest Scenic Route Is A Pacific Northwest Paradise With Stunning River Views

Built in 1913, the Historic Columbia River Highway runs along the Oregon side of the 80-mile long, 4,000-foot deep Columbia River Gorge, from Troutdale east to The Dalles. Hwy 30, as it's known, was replaced as a transportation corridor in the 1960s by Interstate 84, which gobbled up some of the historic route, but the sections that remain are either road tripable in a car or have been repurposed as pedestrian and bike paths. The plan is to eventually, by the early 2030s, restore the entire 73 miles of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail for recreational use.

Waterfall lovers will have lots to revel in on this route, which rivals Oregon's other waterfall mecca, Silver Falls State Park's Trail of Ten Falls, for beauty. The original highway was thoughtfully mapped out to provide views of many falls right from the roadside. But if you're a hiker, well, you can see twice as many thanks to options like the Eagle Creek Trail, a steep trek that will take you to one waterfall after another, each more dramatic than the last.

The gorge is also dotted with small, intimate campgrounds lush with greenery, like Eagle Creek and Wyeth. It's home to the historic Columbia River Gorge Hotel, situated around the gorge's midpoint, where presidents have slept, as have movie stars from Rudolph Valentino to Tom Cruise. Cool in the summer and breathtaking when the autumn leaves turn, the Gorge is a year-round wonderland. In the winter, when frost coats the leaves in frozen lacework, you can see Multnomah Falls free of the usual crowds. You could make this trip once per season, and it would be completely different, and equally memorable, each time.

Your first dramatic view of the gorge comes at mile marker 22, where the octagonal stone Vista House presides over a basalt outcropping that juts out over 700 feet above the river. Here, you'll begin to appreciate the genius of Samuel Lancaster, the visionary engineer who masterminded the highway and the sights along it at the behest of entrepreneur Sam Hill. Lancaster imagined the Vista House as "an observatory from which the view both up and down the Columbia could be viewed in silent communion with the infinite."

Moving on, you'll come to another of Lancaster's brilliant ideas, which was to frame 620-foot-high Multnomah Falls, Oregon's tallest waterfall (pictured), with stone paths and a bridge. Parking here can be a challenge, so you might want to book a trip on the hop-on, hop-off Waterfall Trolley; parking is available at the Crown Point Historical Society. The trolley makes nine stops, including Crown Point, Multnomah Falls, and several other falls. Better yet, rent an ebike from Bike the Gorge for an afternoon of waterfall-hopping along a six-mile section of the Highway between Wyeth and Viento designated for bikes and pedestrians only. You'll be able to access five different falls, four of which are right off the path. The trail ends at Viento State Park, which features a pebble beach where you can cool your toes or even have a swim on a hot day.

Next, you'll need to briefly hop on I84 to reach the charming town of Hood River, aka the "world capital" of windsurfing — and now kiteboarding and kite foiling, too. Stroll down Oak Street and dip into wine tasting rooms and brew pubs, or head down to Waterfront Park, where you can watch hundreds of colorful windborne people in wetsuits perform aerial acrobatics. It's like attending an aquatic Cirque du Soleil for free.

A second segment of bike trail, the Mosier Twin Tunnels Trail, begins at Hood River and passes through two tunnels on its way to Mosier, which is located 4.5 miles away. The gorge views along this trail are even more grand than those you saw on the waterfall trail as you climb higher and higher. If you're feeling peppy, you can continue on to Rowena Crest (pictured), the last grand viewpoint on the Highway, to bookend the views you took in at Vista Point at the beginning.

The Highway is driveable again from Mosier to The Dalles. The landscape has transformed from a damp, verdant, and lush landscape riddled with waterfalls to a dry plateau bursting with sunshine, grasses, and wildflowers. Get there by following the East Gorge Food Trail, a locavore's delight with stops at farms, wineries, and foodie-friendly markets. This burgeoning bucolic region is doing its best to catch up to Oregon's Willamette Valley as a wine and food destination. If you missed any of the wineries along the way, you can sample them all at the Columbia Gorge Wine Library in another picturesque town, The Dalles, where you'll end your drive at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. There, you can have a look at the astounding 30 tons of supplies Lewis & Clark carried on their historic river journey — and you thought you packed heavy for this trip!