Northern Oregon and the Columbia River

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The Columbia River's watershed includes much of the Northwestern US, and some of Canada, stretching inland to the Continental Divide. It runs south through Washington, and, turning west, it forms the state boundary with Oregon. At Portland, it runs north for a bit, rare for a major river on the North American continent, before turning out to sea. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, its channel slices through volcanic rock, some in the Columbia Plateau of eastern Oregon and Washington, and thousands of feet in the gorge through the Cascade Mountains, just east of Portland.

 Its major tributary, the Snake River, traverses a rugged area near the intersection of Idaho, Oregon and Washington, where several granite mountain ranges are interspersed with basalt flows thousands of feet thick. The river forms Hells Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America. Water level is well below 2000 feet here, while the peaks of the Seven Devils range directly on the canyon's east rim are over 9,000 feet. Not too far to the west are the Wallowa Mountains, of similar height.

In the area of the Gorge through the Cascade Mountains, the volcanoes of Mount Hood, Mount Saint Helens and Mount Adams lord over the landscape. These are all glacier-covered peaks, with Mount Hood being the most dramatic.

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