Due east of Portland along the I-84 interstate, the Columbia River Gorge is a striking, almost forbidding setting with gusty winds, craggy rocks and incredi ble views resembling the heroic landscapes of Albert Bierstadt. Scoured into a deep U-shape by huge Ice Age-era floods that also carved up Eastern Washington, the gorge is a nationally protected scenic area, where foamy waterfalls tumble down its sides and fir and maple trees turn fabulous shades of gold and red in the fall. Much more rugged in the nineteenth century before the arrival of modern dams, this was the ominous final leg of the Oregon Trail, where many pioneers met a dark end negotiating perilous rapids on flimsy wooden rafts.

The most dramatic part of the gorge, between Troutdale and the town of Hood River, is just north of snow-capped Mount Hood. The ideal way to explore it is by driving along the narrow, winding Historic Columbia River Highway (accessible at exits 22 or 35 off I-84), which boasts several excellent vistas, particularly Crown Point - a marvelous WPA structure perched high above the gorge about ten miles east of Troutdale. Further east, some highway sections are now closed to automotive traffic due to the road's difficulty in handling modern traffic loads, and are designed more for hikers and cyclists.

Back on I-84 below, the most spectacular of the waterfalls en route is Multnomah Falls (accessed by an unexpected left-lane exit), whose waters plunge over 530ft down a rock face, collect in a pool, and then drop another seventy feet. Be warned: this is the state's most popular attraction and the crowds can get quite thick. Further east, Bonneville Dam (daily 9am-5pm; tel 541/374-8820) is the Oregon counterpart of Washington's Grand Coulee, a huge New Deal project that generates regional electricity and offers a viewing chamber where you can see salmon making their way upstream - although the numbers dwindle each year.

To the south along Highway 35, Mount Hood is a dormant volcano rising about eleven thousand feet, the tallest of the Oregon Cascades. The Mount Hood Loop - a combination of highways 35 and 26 - takes in both the mount and the gorge, and one of the joys of the area is to explore it by foot along some of the trails. The highest point on the loop at some 4000ft, Barlow Pass is named after Sam Barlow, a wagon-train leader who blazed the first "road" around the mountain, which became the unpleasant alternative to the even more dangerous Columbia River route on the Oregon Trail. Much of the Barlow Road is still followed by the loop, including the steep ridges where wagons frequently skidded out of control and plummeted downhill. You can still see deep gashes on some of the trees where ropes were fastened to check the wagons' descent.

Near the intersection of Hwy-35 and US-26, a turn-off leads to the rough-hewn stone of Timberline Lodge (tel 503/272-3311 or 1-800/547-1406, ; $100-130), a New Deal structure which is part of the year-round Timberline ski resort (tel 503/219-3192; lift tickets $38), and the exterior setting for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining . Two other downhill ski areas - Mount Hood Meadows ( ; $44) and Mount Hood SkiBowl ( ; $39) - offer nighttime skiing from November to April (around $20). There are also many miles of cross-country skiing trails throughout the Mount Hood National Forest .

Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood

• Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood

Explore Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood

• Hood River

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