Hood River

Lia and I came to Hood River chasing a single photograph — the postcard shot of colorful sailboards skimming the Columbia River with Mount Hood’s snowy summit floating behind them — and found a town built almost entirely around that same collision of elements. The Columbia River Gorge acts as a wind tunnel here, funneling steady westerlies against the river’s eastward current to create some of the most consistent windsurfing and kiteboarding conditions in the world, while the volcanic soil of the surrounding hills grows some of the best pears and apples in the country. It’s an odd, wonderful combination: adrenaline sport and orchard town, sharing the same zip code.

The waterfront and the wind

We spent our first afternoon at the Hood River Waterfront Park, watching sailboarders launch into gusts that seemed to appear from nowhere, carving arcs across water the color of steel. A local instructor talked us through the basics of why this stretch of river works so well — thermal winds pulled up the Gorge by the hot Columbia Basin meeting the cool marine air from Portland — before gently suggesting we stick to watching rather than trying it ourselves after one look at our balance on the dock. That evening we ate at a brewery on the waterfront, one of a dense cluster that has made Hood River an unlikely craft beer capital, watching the boards keep going long after the sun dipped behind the Gorge walls.

The Fruit Loop and orchard country

South of town, a looping back-road drive known locally as the Fruit Loop winds through the Hood River Valley’s orchards and vineyards, framed the entire way by Mount Hood’s white cone. We stopped at roadside stands buying fresh Anjou pears straight from the tree, then pulled into a small family orchard for cider tasting on a deck overlooking rows of apple trees running straight toward the mountain. Lia, unable to resist, bought a box of fruit we then had to eat our way through for the rest of the road trip.

Waterfalls along the historic highway

A short drive west along the Historic Columbia River Highway delivers one of the most concentrated collections of waterfalls in the country, tumbling straight off the Gorge’s basalt cliffs. We hiked the short trail to Multnomah Falls at sunrise to beat the crowds, its 620-foot double cascade still shrouded in mist, then continued to quieter cousins like Wahkeena and Horsetail Falls, each one reached by a pull-off and a short trail through mossy old-growth forest. It’s the kind of drive where you stop far more often than planned.

Getting There

Hood River sits about an hour east of Portland International Airport via I-84, a drive that follows the Columbia River Gorge the entire way and counts as one of the more scenic airport transfers in the country. There is no major commercial airport closer than Portland, so most visitors rent a car there; once in Hood River, a car remains useful for reaching the Fruit Loop orchards and the waterfall trailheads, though the compact downtown itself is easily walked.