Cruise/Tour Start Dates:
April 1, 2007
April 6, 2007
April 8, 2007
April 13, 2007
April 15, 2007
April 20, 2007
April 22, 2007
April 27, 2007
September 15, 2007
September 16, 2007
September 21, 2007
September 22, 2007
September 23, 2007
September 28, 2007
September 29, 2007
September 30, 2007
October 5, 2007
October 6, 2007
October 7, 2007
October 12, 2007
October 13, 2007
October 14, 2007
October 19, 2007
October 20, 2007
A River Voyage of Discovery 2007 aboard a small ship, round trip from Portland - 8 days/ 7 nights. Join us on the Columbia and Snake Rivers as the Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition gets fully underway.
The explorers set out in 1804, seeking the Rocky Mountains and the far Pacific. Then in 1805, the Corps of Discovery canoed down the Snake and Columbia Rivers to reach their goal at the sea. We'll retrace their path, covering over 800 miles of scenic riverways punctuated by orchards and evergreens and draped by elegant waterfalls.
Throughout your cruise, the Pacific Northwest's pioneer history is brought to life with a special series of excursions, guest speakers, and narration and presentations by your on-board Exploration Leader.
You will cruise down the winding Snake River through scenic Hells Canyon, ancient Nez Perce horse trails still visible from the river. As your small ship approaches the mouth of the mighty Columbia, you disembark to visit the Fort Clatsop. Passing the heavy wooden gates, you can feel the presence of buckskin-clad Lewis and Clark who sheltered here from the elements during the rainy winter of 1805.
Here, some new wonder awaits around every bend. Dramatic waterfalls dropping into the Columbia River Gorge. Historic forts where blue-coated U.S. Cavalry strived to tame the new frontier. And a fascinating look at how the rivers themselves were tamed, as you transit more than 800 miles and navigate eight major sets of locks and dams - twice.
The Pacific Northwest's pioneer history is made more enriching by the casual, congenial atmosphere of our small ship cruises. Our crew and Exploration Leaders have gathered a rich trove of lore and insider knowledge that they are eager to share, and a special series of excursions, guest speakers, and narration help you recapture the past in intimate ways.
You'll meet those who can tell of the hardships of establishing the Whitman Mission in the midst of wilderness, and from a Nez Perce speaker, who will share their historical contributions in the shaping of this region and the vision for the future of their culture.
The historical tapestry flows right down to the present day, from the saga of dam construction in the 1930s, to the awesome new profile of Mt. St. Helens and the modern environmental issues of salmon survival and irrigation rights.
Tour Itinerary
Day 1: Sail from Portland
On arrival in Portland, you will transfer to a Hospitality Suite downtown. After boarding the ship, slowly cruise the Willamette River to view the downtown skyline. This 240-mile tributary of the Columbia River is crossed by 19 bridges and three ferries.
(D)
Day 2: Cruising The World-Renowned Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area
Your ship slips through the locks of Bonneville Dam at the entrance to the Columbia River Gorge. Stop at the DamÕs Visitor Center, then tour by motorcoach to breathtaking Multnomah Falls, the tallest falls in Oregon. Visit the Hood River Valley to take in some local flavor. Return to the ship to continue cruising upriver, passing through The Dalles and John Day Lock and Dam.
(B, L, D)
Day 3: Cruising the Snake River
Over the course of the day, cruise from the Columbia River into the Snake, with several lock passages. Explore the rugged cliffs and buttes along the shores. McNary Dam was completed in 1953 and created Lake Wallula. Ice Harbor Dam near the confluence of the two rivers was completed in 1961, and includes a fish ladder. It creates Lake Sacajawea.
(B, L, D)
Day 4: Hells Canyon
After your final upriver locking at Lower Granite Dam, the vessel will dock in historic Clarkston, Washington, where you'll hear the story of the Nez Perce from their perspective. Board jet boats for an exhilarating excursion deep into Hells Canyon. This free-flowing stretch of the Snake River boasts lovely scenery beneath steep cliffs rising thousands of feet on both sides of the gorge.
(B, L, D)
Day 5: Walla Walla
Today, relive history at the Fort Walla Walla Museum with a collection of over 35,000 catalogued artifacts. Enjoy a delicious lunch at Walla Walla's 26 Brix restaurant, located in the 130-year-old Dacres Hotel, on the National Register of Historic Places. You will have time to explore the town, taste local wine, or take a walking tour and enjoy the sculptures you'll find throughout town. Return to the ship for some relaxing late afternoon cruising.
(B, L, D)
Day 6: The Dalles and Maryhill Museum
The Maryhill Museum is your morning treat, a historic mansion sitting in solitary splendor on a bluff over the Columbia River. You'll discover an eclectic collection of Native arts, European paintings, and the Queen of Romania's personal effects. Then explore the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles and see plants like Lewis & Clark saw on the nature trails, with spectacular dioramas and displays of the region's geography and history. Enjoy lunch in this impressive setting. Return to the ship by way of Rowena Crest, one of America's Scenic Byways. Continue cruising into the dramatically beautiful Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
(B, L, D)
Day 7: Astoria and Fort Clatsop
Stand in Lewis & Clark's footsteps at Fort Clatsop National Historic Park. See the fascinating Columbia River Maritime Museum, the site of Lewis & Clark's fort. Step off the beaten path to Astoria and return to the ship for lunch. Later, you can see the best of downtown Astoria on your own, equipped with a city map and recommendations from the crew. You're free to discover the hidden treasures of this Victorian seaport.
(B, L, D)
Day 8: Back to Portland
Return to Portland's attractive riverfront where your week-long voyage into history ends. A transfer is included to the Portland Airport.
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Trip Notes
Visit the City of Roses, Portland, Oregon - located on the Willamette River in northwestern Oregon, southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, with a population of a half-million. This site was at one time a First Peoples campground and traditional hunting and fishing site. Portland was first settled by non-natives in 1829 and incorporated in 1851. As an early terminus for the early pioneer Oregon Trail and with the flow of gold rush immigrants, it has become the State of Oregon’s largest city and an important west coast port.
Portland is a city of many nicknames such as “Little Stumptown,” referring to the days when early builders left many tree stumps in the middle of the city. It was also named “Puddletown” during the same era. In 1852, an Oregonian editorial stated that it was not appropriate for women to raise their skirts to avoid all the puddles in the Portland area, and it was best if women stayed home when it rained! Those days have certainly changed, and now the city is better known as the “City of Roses.”
Portland hosts a popular month-long Rose Festival every June with rose shows, parades, fireworks, concerts and more. It is also known as the “City of Bridges” because of its unique variety of 14 auto bridges, some built by world-famous engineers, and eight of which are listed on the National Historic Register.
This clean and friendly riverside city was ranked as one of the U.S. cities with the "Most Pleasant Climate" by a 1991 Rand McNally survey, ranking six places ahead of Honolulu, Hawaii! There is much to enjoy on a visit to Portland, with its wonderful blend of historic sites and modern skyscrapers.
The Tom McCall Waterfront Park follows the Willamette River for 22 blocks. It's popular with locals and visitors for scenic riverside strolls or jogs, and is the site of the Rose Festival in June, as well as the popular arts and crafts “Saturday Market.”
The city offers myriad shopping choices, visits to museums, or a leisurely afternoon perusing the largest independent bookstore in the U.S. Powell’s Bookstore is one city block long and three stories high, requiring a map to guide you when you enter!
Enjoy some time in Portland before or after your cruise and extend your stay at The Heathman Hotel. Includes one night's hotel accommodations, baggage handling and transfers between the airport and hotel. $145.00 pp based on double occupancy, single and triple rates are available upon request.
Columbia River: Learn about the rich past of the Columbia River - This great river of the West was not discovered until the 1700's. Many explorers sought to discover the mouth of this great river. James Cook, John Meares, and George Vancouver all searched for and missed it. In 1792, a U.S. fur trader by the name of Robert Gray became the first white seaman to sail a vessel into the river. He named it for his ship – the Columbia Rediviva. Ongoing exploration was accelerated as a result of Gray’s discovery, aided by the 1803 Louisianna Purchase.
Lewis & Clark, Wilson Price Hunt and the Astorians, the Hudson’s Bay Company, missionaries like the Whitmans and the Spaldings, Benjamin Bonneville, and Peter Skeen Odgen all helped discover and open up the Pacific Northwest. What first started out as a small smattering of explorers and traders would eventually become a flood, as thousands of Oregon Trail settlers came west seeking a new start.
See dramatic basalt formations in Hells Canyon - Hells Canyon is the deepest river gorge in North America and a wonderful and unique region to explore by jet boat. This stretch of the Snake River is designated as a national recreation area and is one of the last remaining free-flowing sections of the river. Once the traditional lands of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce, this area is full of history, geology, wildlife, and breathtaking scenery. View basalt rock formed as the result of ancient volcanic eruptions. See weird five- to seven-sided columnar basalt formations caused by unique cooling conditions.
Massive mountain areas that were once part of the ocean floor have been uplifted as jagged peaks abundant with limestone deposits. At the famous Nez Perce crossing, Chief Joseph and his Wallowa Nez Perce band were forced to swim themselves, their children, and their livestock across the swollen Snake River. Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, bald eagles, great blue herons, elk, and mule deer can all be found in Hells Canyon.
Old Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway: See one of the most spectacular roads in America - Imagine crafting a national treasure on a landscape so revered that each viewpoint is protected, and where the design and materials must be in complete harmony with the natural elements.
Then imagine the result being so good that people come from all over the world to marvel at its perfection. This is the historic Columbia River Highway (the London News called it "The King of Roads"), a pathway along the spectacular Columbia Gorge.
A remarkable group of civic-minded men joined in the effort to build the highway. Sam Hill, a Seattle lawyer for the great northern railroad, brought together civil engineer Sam Lancaster, lumber barons Simon Benson and John Yeon, publisher San Jackson, Portland’s leading retailer Julius Meir, and Multnomah county commissioner Rufus Holman. Construction began in 1912 and the new road, 74 miles long, was completed in 1922.
Today, few sections are open to automobile traffic. One section is the 6.5-mile stretch from Hood River to Mosier. This drive offers breathtaking views of the Columbia River Gorge, which in the spring is an explosion of wildflowers, and in the fall is an equally breathtaking mix of fall colors.
Snake River: Watch for birds of prey along the Snake River - For Lewis & Clark, the Snake River was an area of almost continual rapids and waterfalls. Today, the area is starkly beautiful, with a mixture of irrigated farmland and open rangeland where beef cattle and an occasional deer graze.
The construction of dams with their installed navigation locks has afforded safer and faster travel on the river for all types of vessels. Barge traffic is quite common as varied products are moved both up and down stream via the river. Many small but scenic parks dot the shoreline.Several areas have also been set aside as refuges for wildlife by the Corps of Engineers to mitigate natural habitat areas lost when water backed up behind the dams.
Certain stretches of the Snake River now offer excellent wildlife viewing. Look for the rare white pelican near Ice Harbor Dam. Learn about the significance of Monument Rock. See some of the largest family-owned apple orchards in the U.S. Look for osprey, golden eagles, and numerous species of hawk along the cliffs, bluffs, and shorelines.
Maryhill Museum: Tour the 'loneliest art museum in the world,' Maryhill Museum - In the middle of nowhere, deep in the Columbia Gorge, can be found Sam Hill Country. Sam was a lawyer living in Portland who fell in love with the Columbia Gorge; he said “We have found the Garden of Eden where the sun from the east meets the rain of the west.” Known variously as a millionaire, friend of royalty, apostle of peace, road builder, eccentric, and dreamer, in 1908 he purchased 7,000 acres and planned to establish a utopian agricultural community here. He built a castle-like mansion for his wife using no wood – only reinforced concrete. Sam could not convince his wife to move to the middle of nowhere, and the building remained incomplete until after his death in 1940.
Today, this mansion is (according to Time Magazine) ‘The loneliest art museum in the world.’ Unique is the only word to explain it. Due to his friendship with European royalty, it contains Romanian art donated by his friend Queen Maria of Romania. It also houses sculptures by August Rodin, an inspiring collection of chess pieces from all over the world, and one of the best collections of North American native artifacts seen outside the Smithsonian.
Sam also financed the construction of a replica of Stonehenge on the grounds as a war memorial dedicated to the men of the area who died during World War One. From the site of the museum people have an excellent view of Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge.
Columbia and Snake River Geology: Time-travel along the Columbia and Snake Rivers - The entire Pacific Northwest has been influenced by two major types of floods. The first were volcanic in origin, as floods of molten lava poured over the land. Originating in volcanoes long since extinct, these flood basalts, as they are called, accumulated layer upon layer, creating the land mass that is now Washington and Oregon. Visible in the sides of the Columbia Gorge, these basalt flows appear as a series of layers heaped one upon the other. Mountains build up and rivers erode or cut down; as a result, the gorge provides a clear cross-sectional view of geologic time.
The Columbia River has been steadily eroding its river channel for millennia. But the river alone was never powerful enough to create the gorge as we see it now. What happened to help the river? The answer is massive cataclysmic Ice Age flooding. From about 15,000 years ago to about 12,000 years ago, a series of massive ice dam failures resulted in enormous floods rushing down the Columbia River pathway. This water was as much as 1,000 feet high and traveled at speeds close to 100 miles per hour. Such massive floods ripped and tore at the sides of the river valley, removing huge quantities of rock, gravel, and debris. Originating northeast of Spokane, Washington, near Missoula, Montana, these floods flushed away thousands of tons of ground up rock and carried this material along until the floodwaters slowed.
When these floodwaters slowed, they dropped their 'bed load' of gravel. This deposited material, called Loess, can now be found in the Walla Walla and Willamette Valleys. This is the reason these two areas are so rich agriculturally. These two complementary flood phases resulted in the diverse scenery and beauty that can be seen along the Columbia-Snake River route today.
Walla Walla Valley, Washington: Watch the patchwork farmland pass by in the Walla Walla Valley - Sunny and fertile, this area is often called Washington’s breadbasket. Soils deposited by ice-age floods, combined with irrigation from the Columbia, Snake, and Walla Walla Rivers, contribute to the area's high production of wheat, alfalfa, corn, asparagus, potatoes, the famous Walla Walla sweet onion, and wine grapes. History in the area pre-dates the Oregon Trail migration.
The first white settlers were religious missionaries sent to bring Christianity to the Cayuse and Walla Walla natives indigenous to the valley. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman established their Presbyterian mission at Waiilatpu amongst the Cayuse living in the area. This mission became an early stopping place for trail pioneers, and that became a point of contention for the Cayuse. Travelers brought diseases with them and passed them on to the local natives.
The resulting deaths coupled with misunderstanding lead to a tragic uprising, attack, and massacre. This resulted in the Cayuse wars, and at the conclusion of hostilities, treaty negotiations ended with the establishment of the reservation system and the natives lost their land. This opened the area for homesteading, and the final result is the extremely important agricultural richness enjoyed in this beautiful valley today.
Astoria, Oregon: Admire the Victorian-era architecture of Astoria. - Fort Astoria is located near the mouth of the Columbia River, and was founded by employees of John Jacob Astor’s fur trading company in 1811. Today, Astoria has more registered historic buildings than any other city in Oregon. It is the oldest U.S. city on the west coast.
The Astoria Column has 168 steps in an internal spiral staircase that leads to the top where the views of the Columbia River are breathtaking. Restored in 1995 at a cost of $700,000, the Column has 14 murals adorning its outside. The historic Flavel House was the home of Captain George Flavel and his family, and the historic Victorian-era mansion is now part of a tour of historic Astoria.
The Astoria-Megler Bridge is a 4.1-mile-long bridge that spans one of the widest parts of the lower Columbia River and enables Highway 101 to cross from Washington to Oregon. Completed in 1966, the bridge was humorously called “The Bridge to Nowhere” or “Hatfield’s Folly” because many skeptics thought it would be of little or no use since there is no major town situated on the Washington side of the span. It was a toll bridge until 1993, when the debt associated with the bridge’s construction was paid off (two years ahead of schedule) and the toll was abolished.
Astoria’s waterfront district was the site of over 30 fish canneries during the heyday of commercial fishing in Astoria. Today, all that remains of this unique part of Astoria’s past are the pylons that supported these buildings. A trolley car offers narrated tours of this historic area of Astoria. Many international ships pass by Astoria today. These vessels cross the treacherous Columbia River bar aided by a bar pilot and then continue upriver to the ports of Portland, Vancouver, Longview, or Kalama.
The Columbia River Maritime Museum, which brings the maritime history of this community to life, is a highlight of our visit to Astoria.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Pricing shown is based on the minimum category cabin and includes cruise, meals and land excursions as noted, inclusive of all taxes, fees and gratuities. The staterooms available at these prices are limited. All itineraries and prices are current at time of posting and subject to change without notice. Pre and post-cruise land packages are available at additional cost.
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