Life in Oregon: The Scenic Columbia River Gorge

No trip to Oregon is complete without visiting the beautiful and inspiring Columbia River Gorge. It is just 16miles east of Portland using the I-84, and the whole national scenic area of Columbia River Gorge is about 80miles long. The famous Multnomah fall, Bridal Veil Fall, Crown Point Vista House viewing point and Bonneville Dam are situated along this beautiful River Gorge, to name a few. In this article, i will be talking about the Crown Point Vista House and Bonneville Dam, but feel free to read my blog about Multnomal fall here.
If you are driving from Portland direction, you will first reach the Crown Point Vista House after about 30minutes drive. The road to the vista house is a bit winding and narrow, but it is really worth the drive. You can get a really nice spot for photo of the Columbia River Gorge by climbing up the narrow staircase of the Vista House. However there is not much space on the 2nd floor, and it may be so crowded that you have to wait for you turn to take a photo. For those of you who would like to buy a postcard or souvenir, there is also a small souvenir shop downstair. After less than an hour of time we spent enjoying the view and taking our photo, we headed to our next destination, the Bonneville Dam. It is about half an hour drive from the Crown Point Vista House. What's so special about this Dam is that it got windows which allowed visitors to watch the fishes swimming through the Dam to the upstream. Of course, there is also the guided tour to the power house, explaining how this megastructed was been built and how it's capable to supply the power that needed by whole Oregon State. But for me, i enjoyed watching the fishes more. They were so determined to swim across the dam towards the upstream, never rest or give up even been hit so badly by the big waves several times. Oh, by the way, you can't bring any weapon into the dam because there is a security check at the entrance :)