Multnomah Falls, free falling for 620 feet, is the most popular scenic attraction in the state of Oregon. Most visitors come upon it via the interstate highway, but Sea Bird guests get a long revealing approach from the Columbia River. No traffic jams here. In a year, the falls has nearly two million highway visitors.

Tall Douglas fir and bold black basalt cliffs framed the shining white waterfall. As we passed, a shaft of sunlight highlighted the falls on an otherwise misty day. It is the second-highest year-round waterfall in the United States. This was a dramatic contrast to 185-foot Palouse Falls in its arid grassland plateau which we visited yesterday.

The Corps of Discovery wrote in their journals of falls along the Columbia River Gorge, of which there are many. "Down these heights frequently descend the most beautiful cascades, one of which, a large creek, throws itself over a perpendicular rock 300 feet above the water, while other smaller streams precipitate themselves from a still greater elevation."

The Sea Bird is a perfect vantage point for seeing most of these falls, including Elowah, Horsetail, Wahkeena, Mist, Coopey and Latourell. Multnomah Falls with its great flow begins at the top of the Columbia River Gorge on Larch Mountain at 4,000 feet elevation. It joins the Columbia at nearly sea level and, as noted by Lewis and Clark, at the very head of tidewater, some 100 miles upstream from the Pacific Ocean.