Camping Among the Giants

In early November 1805, the Corps of Discovery entered the upper Columbia River estuary, where towering cliffs rose above the river, dense forests of cottonwood, alder, maple, and willow lined the shore, and fir and cedar stood on the heights above. John Ordway observed spring runs flowing from the high cliffs and mountains, some falling about 100 feet perpendicular. Rooster Rock, a landslide of Crown Point, drew the expedition’s attention, along with nearby Phoca Rock in mid-river and Beacon Rock on the eastern horizon, volcanic plugs from vanished volcanoes. Clark estimated Beacon Rock at 800 feet high, and the explorers named Phoca Rock for the harbor seal and gave its height as 100 feet. On November 2, 1805, Patrick Gass recorded that the party traveled 23 miles and encamped at a high peak resembling a tower on the south side. The rocky cliffs of Cape Horn on the north shore, Crown Point on the south shore, and the spires of the Pillars of Hercules are remnants of Miocene lava flows. At the end of the Wisconsin Ice Age about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, the 500-foot-high Missoula Floods, released from melting glaciers in western Montana, surged through the gorge, scoured away topsoil and vegetation perhaps a hundred times, and created the modern geological landscape of the region. Rooster Rock State Park opened in 1957 and includes three miles of sandy beach wetlands fed by Young and Latourelle Creeks and the basalt spire that gives the park its name.

Oregon · United States