Checklist

I Spy! Look for These Landmarks in the Columbia River Gorge

How many of these can you check off on your next Gorge trip?

By Gabriel Granillo and Margaret Seiler Published in the Spring 2022 issue of Portland Monthly

Vista House at Crown Point

Make your next trip through the Columbia River Gorge a little more interesting by seeing how many of these landmarks you can spot.

1. Octagonal Art Nouveau rest stop/highway museum Vista House at Crown Point observatory, a frequent film-shoot location that closes in high winds

Bridal Veil Falls

2. The 118-foot Bridal Veil Falls, named such for the way its white waters droop down like a veil 

3. An unobstructed view of the Columbia River at the Cape Horn lookout on the Washington side (pro tip: time the drive to be here at sunrise/sunset)

4. The core of an ancient volcano, 848-foot-tall looming monolith Beacon Rock and its wild switchback trail

Bridge of the Gods

5. The 1,858-foot steel-truss Bridge of the Gods, built in 1926, takes its name from a Klickitat legend.

6. The bronze, immensely detailed statue of Sacagawea (with well-traveled dog Seaman) in Cascade Locks

Drano Lake

7. Idling boaters at Drano Lake, which gathers its crystal blue waters from the Little White Salmon River and not from the clog-removing agent

8. Frank Lloyd Wright vibes on the green-roofed, solar-powered Turtle Island Foods plant, a.k.a. the Tofurky world headquarters

9. The vibrant wraparound mural in Hood River known as the Remains Wall, depicting a flying fedora, Native fishers, an homage to A Trip to the Moon, and more  

10. Castle-like details of the century-old Mosier Twin Tunnels, sealed off when I-84 was built and reopened for hikers and bikers in 2000

11. The baffling billboards and wild roof line of The Dalles family pizza restaurant Spooky’s

12. The Dalles Lock and Dam, completed in 1958 and one of the 10 largest hydropower dams in the US—and the reason Celilo Falls is under water

13. Maryhill’s Stonehenge replica, built by Maryhill Museum of Art founder Sam Hill to honor casualties of World War I

14. Towering wind turbines capturing energy on both sides of the Columbia, the west’s largest concentration of wind farms 

15. Some of the mountain goats in the Gorge might have been transplanted from other places by wildlife agencies looking to bolster local populations

Share