Day 4 - Stevenson, WA - Monday

Be on deck early in the morning when the Columbia Queen transits the dramatic Bonneville
Lock, the first of 16 locks we’ll transit this week. Today’s excursions include a visit to the Bonneville Dam Visitor’s Center, where you can observe how fish ladders allow thousands of salmon to navigate the river to spawn. You’ll also visit 620-foot high Multnomah Falls, the second-highest year-round waterfall in the U.S.

This afternoon, you will cruise through the breathtaking Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area toward your next stop: The Dalles. Experience the sights, sounds and history of this remarkable area at the fascinating Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, which depicts the migration of settlers, native cultures and explorers.

On your way to dinner this evening, stop by our Riverboat Photographer’s gallery to check out shots of the day’s activities.

Daily tour background descriptions:

The Bonneville Dam Visitors Center
Dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 28, 1937 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 1986, this magnificent dam connects two states, Oregon and Washington. Federal locks and dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers were designed for balanced use of the region’s water resources. Fish ladders planned by Corps engineers, environmental specialists and biologists simulate the waterfalls and pools found in natural streams.

Visitors can watch migrating fish move past underwater windows at the visitor’s center. The underwater-lighted windows offer an exciting close-up look at the various fish moving up the fish ladder. Our tour will include views of the dam spillway, a visit to the underwater fish viewing and counting windows, interpretive exhibits, and the fish ladders.

Multnomah Falls
Plummeting 620 feet from its origins on Larch Mountain, Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the nation. Here, all your senses will come alive as you experience the sights and sounds of these magnificent falls. The Multnomah Falls site is rich in history--natural, cultural, geologic. You can discover and uncover many treasures with the help of exhibits, signs, brochures, books, and naturalist activities and programs.

The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Wasco County Historical Museum in Dalles, OR.
Special Exhibit-Cargo: Equipment and Supplies of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
This unique, one of a kind, 4,000 square foot exhibition will draw on 16 years of original research to interpret the material goods involved in launching the transcontinental expedition. Executive Director, Ken Karsmizki's research has revealed that roughly 30 tons of equipment was hauled by the 33-man expedition. Original inventories in the National Archives document that Lewis divided his equipment needs into seven distinct categories: Indian presents, arms and accoutrements, medicines, clothing, mathematical instruments, camp equipment and provisions, and transportation. The exhibit will be developed around these seven themes, and will present the cargo in two ways. First, the pile of cargo, ready to be loaded on boats in St. Louis, will provide an immediate, dramatic impact as visitors contemplate the enormous amount of material. Crates, bundles, kegs, bags, boxes, cases, and packages will provide a visual answer to the question: How much is 30 tons? Second, the details of what is inside all those containers will be represented through the use of replicas and period objects. As visitors move through and read information about the diverse goods they are seeing, they will understand the rationale for bringing it all along for use, consumption, gift, and trade.

The splendor of the Columbia Gorge comes to life in the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Wasco County Historical Museum. Your visit will take you back 40 million years when fiery volcanoes, massive landslides and raging floods created the Gorge. Experience the sights and sounds of how the gorge's unique geology and climate evolved into a dazzling array of wetlands, arid savannahs and lush rain forests. Learn about 10,000 years of Native American life, and meet the explorers who opened the way to settlement. Witness Celilo Falls and the course of the Columbia River before and after the creation of the Dalles Dam. At this fascinating museum, you'll travel back in time to an early 19th century town, where you can board a sternwheeler, visit a cannery or pump a railroad handcar, and listen to tales of early river explorers. Then return to the present to examine issues about use of the Gorge's resources, now and into the future.

Optional Tours Spa Package “The Spa at Bonneville Hot Springs” (Morning tour, 8-11 am) Historical records indicate that the waters of the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort were used for centuries by the Native American tribes living in the area. Tribes such as the Rogue River, Chitcoe, Calapoi, Klamath, and Makah would travel to this treasured spot, bringing their sick and aged to bathe in and drink the waters of this fabled fountain of youth. History records the “discovery” of the springs in 1880 by an old miner, Mr. R. J. Snow. A local merchant, Mr. Thomas Moffett, recognized the value of the waters and began selling the bottled waters for 10¢ a bottle. Today, the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort provides these very same waters to the public, along with a spacious resort having all the facilities for relaxing and revitalizing. The 6,000-square-foot Bonneville Hot Springs Resort offers men’s and women’s European-style spa services. All treatments use the natural hot springs mineral water. The spring water comes out of the ground at 97° and is heated as needed. Treatments available include soaking baths, body wraps, massages and facials. 9 Holes of Golf at Skamania Lodge Along Lewis and Clark's historic trail, and surrounded by waterfalls, peaks, forests and canyons of the Columbia River Gorge lies Dolce Skamania Lodge - a rustic yet pristine mountain resort surrounded by breathtaking views and a complete reverence to nature. The Golf Center at Dolce Skamania Lodge features a beautiful and challenging 18-hole, par-70 golf course with driving range, practice bunker, chipping greens and putting greens. The course is challenging, as well as breathtaking, and winds through the forest and around ponds, taking advantage of the natural landscape. Spectacular vistas, from elevated greens to towering Douglas Firs, make this course a joy to play. Guests will be picked up and dropped off at the vessel by Skamania Lodge shuttle.