October, 2025
We don’t call it the Columbia River … we call it the mighty Columbia River. It’s huge, it’s gorgeous, it’s so powerful, it means so much to so many people.
I thought, in this blog post, that I would share my photos of the Columbia River from my camping trip to Beacon Rock State Park where I’m camped right next to the mighty Columbia River. But I’ve decided to share a video with you instead, not one I created, a video created by someone else.
Mossback (Knute Berger) is well known in the Pacific NW of the USA for his fascinating tales of local history, people, geography, geology, Seattle stuff, details of Puget Sound and the islands here, business info, financial info, history of towns and native tribes, and yet current events too. Fair warning, he tells the truth, so the information he shares isn’t always fun to listen to. Immigrants (mostly from Europe) were sometimes extremely destructive. But mostly Mossback’s stories are a lot of fun and very interesting. This fellow knows a lot and is so good at telling the stories … one blog post of his relates the history (from 1938 and still going strong today) of Ivar’s Restaurants … Ivar’s acres of clams! 🙂
The other fellow in the video below is Nick Zentner who knows geology and geography like you don’t even know your left hand! He’s amazing and has many videos on line as well.
Ok, buckle up, pay attention!, and let’s go take a look at the mighty Columbia River. These two people will tell you about basalt rocks right along the east side of the river that are “only” 16 million years old (its the NEW volcano stuff) … versus the migmatite rocks on the west (older) side of the river that are 160 million years old! Turns out a volcano in Oregon shoved billions of gallons of Columbia river water over to the west, many miles. So the new volcanic rock is on one side of the river, and the old migmatite rock is still on the other side of the river. Ok, enough from me. Turn your sound on, sit back, and enjoy this video.
Here’s a link to my visit to the remains of the Peter Iredale, when I was camped on the Oregon Coast just south of the Columbia River bar, right next to the Pacific Ocean. The Peter Iredale was one of so many ships lost off the Columbia bar in horrible weather.
This camping trip, to Beacon Rock State Park, is my fourth camping trip along the mighty Columbia River. I could spend the rest of my life camping along the Columbia and still not see all of it. But I do intend to see a great deal more of it. 🙂
As we also say hereabouts … roll on Columbia … you beautiful river, roll on!
Wow, that was impressive!
I subscribe to Mossback’s blogs, they are so well done and I’ve learned so much about the Pacific NW from them, even tho I was born and raised here. Didn’t know about Zentner, but he sounds great. Roll on Columbia!!
Nebraska has the Platte and the Missouri River here. Most folks here think they are spectacular. And they are, you bet. But my gosh the Columbia River is something else. I looked up the total volume of water that empties into the Pacific Ocean from the Columbia, it’s unimaginably huge to me. What a lesson for the USA to learn about, to share!! with Canada.
Amazing history. And what an amazing river! This was great. Thank you.
I’ve driven the bridge over the Columbia from Washington to Oregon many times but have not taken the time to explore the Columbia. Which side should I start on? What should I see first? Mossback is great.
We live in BC, Canada, and we have not been to the headwaters of the Columbia River either but it would make for a fascinating trip. Mossback is terrific. 🙂
Jim
Fascinating! Me too, have lived most of my life here, but didn’t know 90% of this. This was really great. Every kid in school should be watching these videos.
Oh Mossback is great. He has been producing short 5 minute videos that show on the major TV stations here in western Washington for a number of years. His full videos are terrific and really popular here. Thanks Ann. It’s great to showcase him to others here in western WA, but to other people around the world too. It’s fun and it’s professionally accurate.
Thank you, everyone! Thank you … you old boating friends of mine who still read along here, and you folks who have never met me but we’ve become friends here. I love everyone’s comments. Thank you.
As far as beginning to explore the Columbia, if you live in western Washington or Oregon, I’d suggest starting with a drive along the Oregon side of the Columbia, highway 84. The road is wider and easier to travel than the road on the Washington side, more places to turn out and stop and look. But also, just a tiny bit south of highway 84, there is the Historic Columbia River Highway on the Oregon side (it is NOT highway 84, so look it up) that will take you UP to and around an amazing observation point, Crown Point. And then it will take you to more amazing views. That’s a great area to start exploring.
As others of you have voiced, there is so much of the Columbia River to explore. In the future, I will be camping in places along this river that I haven’t visited yet. So come on along with me.
Roll on Columbia, roll on! 🙂