5. Portland: Sightseeing Tour with Columbia Gorge Waterfalls
On this full-day tour, you’ll see the best of the Portland area and the Columbia River Gorge. Along the way, learn about Portland’s interesting history and modern-day culture from your guide. This tour combines some of the most iconic and unique places in Portland with the natural beauty and splendor of the waterfalls, scenic vistas, and historical sites in the Columbia River Gorge. More than just a basic Portland city tour, our half-day Portland City Tour will reveal the laid-back small city feel of this fun and thriving downtown. You will experience the best Portland sites including the International Rose Garden (seasonally), the World Forestry Museum (seasonally), the Oregon Society of Artists (seasonally), Pioneer Courthouse Square, NW 23rd (the best shopping area in Portland), the Pearl District, and the South Park Blocks. Today Portland is known as one of the world’s most environmentally conscious cities: a hub for farm-to-table eateries, alternative lifestyles, a large community of cyclists, and high walkability. Let our informative and entertaining Tour Guides show you the best the City of Portland has to offer. Your Gorge adventure will take place along the Historic Columbia River National Scenic Byway, where some of the locations we may stop include, Portland Women’s Forum, Crown Point Vista House, Latourell Falls, Multnomah Falls, and Shepperd’s Dell. Millions of years ago, during the formation of the Cascade Mountain Range, lava and other pyroclastic matter flowed west from what would be the Cascades all the way to the Pacific Ocean, creating a thick shell of basalt rock that covered Western Oregon. Then, during the Pleistocene Ice Age, roughly 15,000 years ago, water from the Lake Missoula Flood carved out the Columbia River Gorge as hundreds of cubic miles of water, ice, rock and mud rushed from present-day Montana to the Pacific Ocean. Explore the beauty of the canyon walls and rock formations, breathtaking waterfalls and awe-inspiring visas that make the Columbia River National Scenic Area one of the Seven Wonders of Oregon. Our enthusiastic guides will introduce you to the most amazing places in the Gorge while providing a comprehensive narrative of this spectacular landscape and its transformative history.