The Columbia River Gorge is a natural wonder located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, stretching for over 80 miles along the Columbia River and separating Washington State from Oregon. This breathtaking landscape is renowned for its scenic beauty, recreational opportunities, and rich cultural history.
One of the most striking features of the Columbia River Gorge is its diverse geography, encompassing everything from lush forests and rolling hills to stunning waterfalls and rugged cliffs. The area is home to over 90 waterfalls, with some of the most popular being Multnomah Falls, Horsetail Falls, and Latourell Falls. These cascading wonders can be accessed via hiking trails, allowing visitors to get up close and personal with the raw power of the falls.
Another popular outdoor activity in the Columbia River Gorge is hiking, with over 80 miles of trails available for both experienced and novice hikers. Whether you’re looking for an easy stroll or a challenging climb, you’re sure to find a trail that suits your needs. One of the most popular trails is the Eagle Creek Trail, which follows the creek through a narrow canyon and provides breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape.
In addition to hiking and waterfall viewing, the Columbia River Gorge also offers a wealth of recreational opportunities, such as fishing, boating, and windsurfing. The Columbia River is one of the most productive salmon and steelhead fishing streams in the world, with ample opportunities for anglers of all skill levels. Boaters and windsurfers also flock to the Gorge for its steady winds and flat water, making it one of the best places in the world for these activities.
The cultural history of the Columbia River Gorge is also rich and varied, with roots stretching back to the Native American tribes who have lived in the area for thousands of years. Today, the area is home to several tribal communities, including the Yakama Nation, the Warm Springs Tribe, and the Umatilla Tribe. Visitors can learn about the history and culture of these tribes at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, which offers exhibits, guided tours, and educational programs.
In addition to its cultural heritage, the Columbia River Gorge is also home to several historic landmarks and sites, including the Columbia River Highway, the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail, and the Bonneville Dam. The Columbia River Highway, built in the early 20th century, is a scenic drive that follows the river and offers stunning views of the Gorge. The Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail is a multi-use path that follows the route of the original highway and provides opportunities for hiking, biking, and horseback riding. The Bonneville Dam, located just east of the Gorge, is a major hydroelectric dam that provides power to millions of people in the Pacific Northwest.
Despite its many attractions, the Columbia River Gorge is also a fragile ecosystem that is threatened by a range of environmental issues, including deforestation, pollution, and habitat destruction. To help protect this unique area, several conservation organizations, including the Friends of the Columbia River Gorge and the Columbia River Gorge Commission, are working to preserve and restore the Gorge’s natural beauty.
The Columbia River Gorge is a breathtaking natural wonder that offers a wealth of scenic, recreational, and cultural opportunities. Whether you’re a nature lover, an outdoor enthusiast, or simply a history buff, you’re sure to find something to love in this iconic Pacific Northwest landscape. So if you’re looking for a scenic escape, a cultural adventure, or simply a break from the hustle and bustle of daily life, the Columbia River Gorge is the perfect place to be.
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to