Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area - Best Hikes, Waterfalls & Overlooks (2023)

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The waterfalls are so beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

As a PNW person and local, I agree! The Columbia River Gorge deserves park status. There is an official campaign for it and for Mt Hood actually, called the Mt Hood National Park campaign, though it hasn't really received any real traction. But both the Gorge and Mt Hood are park worthy, and while the Gorge is fairly (reasonably) well protected, the greater Mt Hood region is extremely unprotected and has suffered many actual damaging impacts to its park qualities and pristine scenery. Notable examples of those has been the widening of the Mt Hood Highway by ODOT (first many decades ago when it destroyed the original scenic highway that in both roadside and bridge architecture was modeled after the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway depicted in your video, and the more recent widening of sections to make it more freeway-like. The most notable being entirely new sections blasted out of the rock face near the Mirror Lake hike). The old highway has been overgrown as the new highway cut through it and broke it up. The old highway was a lot more windy and narrow, far more park-like and scenic. What's done is done, but if it becomes a national park, there may be hope to restore the old highway into a scenic bikeway like the Columbia River Gorge State Trail project that was completed a few years ago that revived old abandoned historic sections of the highway that the I-84 freeway bypassed.  Without any formal park or other protected status (like national monument or scenic area), the whole Mt Hood region, besides the various scattered wilderness areas, have been severely degraded and impacted by unsightly clear cuts and "improvements" done to the highways and ski parks (such as expanded parking lots–in fact, one of the major reasons for the road expansion was for winter ski traffic to Mt Hood Meadows and Timberline because of weekend ski traffic and congestion–stuff that can be alleviated if only they'd run a shuttle bus and encourage people (like via limited quota permits on winter weekends) to ski on weekdays over weekends). The roads and highways under a national park might also see more focus on road infrastructure that is more complimentary to the natural environment, like use of aesthetic stone-work roadside guards and more aesthetic bridges, like those they built for the old but now destroyed and abandoned historic Mt Hood Highway. WyEastblog website has a good article or two on this and the proposed Mt Hood State Scenic Trail to revive the old historic highway, anyway. The Mt Hood regional trails and roads also suffer under heavy lack of funds and maintenance. The Badger Creek Wilderness on the east side especially suffers and numerous trails are only kept alive because of volunteers–though some have been revived and brought back, like the Old Vista Ridge Trail. A national park might see more focus on park like roadside overlooks. Maybe even the old abandoned stone shelters on the Timberline Trail could be rebuilt again–only a few survive, many have fallen apart and are now ruins. That campaign for a Mt Hood National Park does include the Gorge too, but I am more in favor of splitting them as two adjacent parks. While they could arguably be together, like Olympic has both the coast section and the mountains/rainforests, I think lumping them together would dilute two very different natural wonders. If they were to be one unit though, I'd do it like Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks are combined. Two parks in one, under one joined title. So it would be: Mt Hood & Columbia River Gorge National Parks.

Great video! Very nice looking waterfalls!

I was just out there a week ago. Wish I had found this two weeks ago! 🤣

i went for the first time today and yeah it needs to be a national park because its genuinely so stunning? I would even say equally as beautiful as yosemite!

10:24 Foamer Shot!

I noticed in your video that a section of trail that the author of this comment cleared and made it usable again,like 11years ago, was quite visable.6:53 On a rescent trip I again gave it some needed attention.Thanks for posting this video.

Beautiful video! When you create a video of hikes on the Washington State side, be sure to include the Hamilton Mountain Trail, which starts at Beacon Rock State Park. Amazing Columbia River views.

This reminds me of how there are so many waterfalls in the finger lakes (Watkins Glen Robert Tremaine Taughannock falls etc) - have you gone there?

Can't they clear the brush at Womens Forum Park so we can better see the scene?

Certainly an area to be respected and preserved. You can’t be criticized for stuttering or pausing with “uh” or other fill ins, but for me, the machine gun speed of delivery quickly became annoying. I do appreciate the time and effort you put into this video and make this comment reluctantly, but sincerely.

Absolutely unbelievable. 🤍💖❤🧡💛💚💙💜🖤

Oh no, not a national park! Too many restrictions and lock away from human access and enjoyment. The national Scenic area struck a balance of preservation and respect for the rights of local residents that have been there for generations.