Morning found the National Geographic Sea Bird in The Dalles in beautiful clear weather, with an early morning view of the sunlight striking Mount Hood, one of the Cascade Volcanoes. We drove west up the Old Columbia Highway, the first highway across the Cascade Range, to Rowena Point for a panoramic view of Rowena Gap, a major constriction in the Columbia River Valley. Flag trees attest that this point is usually very windy, but not today. The vista across the Snake River in Oregon provided excellent views of lava flows of the 16-million-year-old Columbia River basalts, scoured in the lower 900 feet by the Missoula Floods which occurred between 18,000 and 13,000 years ago.
We then traveled to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, a spectacular museum of the local geology, history, and culture. Here we were treated to an excellent interactive experience with four raptors: American kestrel, red-tailed hawk, great horned owl, and bald eagle. These birds, whose ability to fly has been compromised by injury, were rehabilitated at an associated raptor center. The Discovery Center is an excellent museum that could occupy far more time than we had. A nature walk down towards the river allowed us to identify many native plants as well as a large cottonwood tree recently felled by beavers. A memorial composed of a hexagonal column from the Columbia River basalts gave us an opportunity to see the black, finely crystalline nature of the basalt.
In the afternoon, we drove to the Maryhill Museum of Art, an incredibly eclectic museum, with Rodin sculptures, blankets made by the Pendleton wool mills for the American Indian market, Native American baskets, and a collection of exotic chess sets. The spotting scope on the terrace gave us a close-up view of the wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail as it dropped down to the Columbia River.
The afternoon ended with an excellent wine tasting at Cascade Cliffs Winery on the Washington side of the Columbia River. Gracious hosts and excellent Grüner Veltliner, Syrah, Nebbiolo, and Barbera. This biodynamic vineyard is sited on one of the huge bars produced by the Missoula Floods. Then it was back to the National Geographic Sea Bird for dinner and departure downriver to spend the night at Hood River.
