In autumn 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition entered the Columbia River Gorge and met Chinookan tribes whose many bands lived between the narrows of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. Chinookan people were experienced traders who had long controlled commerce on the lower Columbia, and near this place the expedition encountered several Upper Chinookan villages and a well-worn portage path around the rapids. Clark observed trade goods in a village and recognized that these communities had extensive experience trading with Euro-Americans and asked high prices for what they sold. Lewis and Clark also met the Watála people in 1805-06, including the Sha-ha-la, Clah-lel-lah, and Wah-cleh-lah bands, later called the Cascade Indians by pioneers because they lived along both sides of the river near the Cascades of the Columbia. Like other Upper Chinookan tribes, their way of life was closely tied to the river and fishing, and they also practiced head shaping. The expedition's journals also recorded the dramatic scenery and changing environments of the Columbia River Gorge, a near sea-level passage through the Cascade Mountains, where the explorers noted forested mountains, cascades, and ecological differences between the drier east end and wetter west end of the Gorge. The Gorge itself was shaped by recurrent Ice Age floods that once sent the river hundreds of feet above present levels and scoured the landscape.