Described by it’s architect as a “temple to the natural beauty of the Gorge”, Vista House has graced Crown Point for one hundred years offering travelers commanding views of the Columbia River. These days during operating hours it also offers travel advice, history, restrooms, a gift shop, and an expresso bar. The vast majority of visitors are unaware that it also offers a geocaching opportunity but we were able to surreptitiously retrieve the tiny container, sign the log, and hide it again. It was fun to return a decade after our first visit to this icon of early Twentieth Century tourism and compare our memories to what we see here today!
“We call upon the mountains,
the Cascades and the Olympics,
the high green valleys
and meadows filled with wildflowers,
the snows that never melt,
the summits of intense silence,
and we ask that they
Teach us, and show us the Way.
We call upon the forests,
the great trees reaching
strongly to the sky
with earth in their roots
and the heaven in their branches,
the fir and the pine and the cedar,
and we ask them to
Teach us, and show us the Way.”
Chinook Invocation – Quoted in Edward Goldsmith, The Way, 1992
I think Mike and I might take a weekend trip to see Vista House!
You’d love that area. Fabulous waterfalls. Great hikes. Fun places to eat. Lots of history.