Historic Columbia River Highway through the gorge
— — a road built to watch a river.
Not only on a wall.
“The old highway runs east from Troutdale, climbs to Crown Point above the river, then drops past Latourell, Wahkeena, and Multnomah Falls. Samuel Lancaster designed it before 1920 to follow the contour rather than the line, and to keep every viewpoint. Stone parapets, basalt arches, the railing low enough to see over. The interstate runs below; the old road stays slow. — from the studio
Historic Columbia River Highway through the gorge, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Historic Columbia River Highway runs about 75 miles from Troutdale to The Dalles, built between 1913 and 1922 as the first planned scenic highway in the United States. It was designed by engineer Samuel Lancaster under the patronage of Sam Hill and Simon Benson, following the contour of the Columbia Gorge rather than the line of least resistance. The highway is a National Historic Landmark. Surviving drivable segments include the Crown Point loop and the waterfall corridor between Bridal Veil and Ainsworth State Park, where Multnomah Falls drops 620 feet.
Lancaster's road is built of the gorge it crosses. The retaining walls and parapets are dry-laid Columbia River basalt, cut by Italian stonemasons brought in for the work. The arched viaduct at Shepperd's Dell and the rockwork above Latourell Falls survive intact. Vista House at Crown Point, finished in 1918, stands 733 feet above the river — sandstone outside, marble and bronze within. The whole road was conceived as a single piece of architecture, intended to stay subordinate to the gorge.
Two main drivable segments survive. The western loop leaves I-84 at Troutdale, climbs the Sandy River to Crown Point and Vista House, then descends through the waterfall corridor to Ainsworth State Park — about 24 miles. The eastern segment runs from Mosier to The Dalles through the Rowena loops. The Multnomah Falls lot now requires a timed-use permit in summer; the State Trail also welcomes cyclists on long restored sections that are closed to cars. No fee for the drive itself.