Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail
Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint offers one of the most photographed panoramas of the Columbia River Gorge -- and during the Missoula Floods, this viewpoint would have provided a bird's-eye view of a wall of water filling the gorge from rim to rim. The viewpoint...
Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint offers one of the most photographed panoramas of the Columbia River Gorge -- and during the Missoula Floods, this viewpoint would have provided a bird's-eye view of a wall of water filling the gorge from rim to rim. The viewpoint looks east toward Crown Point and Vista House, with the gorge stretching into the distance, and west toward Portland where the floods spread across the Willamette Valley. At peak flood stage, the water level in this section of the gorge exceeded 700 feet above the modern river, meaning the entire panoramic view visible today was submerged under a churning mass of muddy, iceberg-laden floodwater. The viewpoint sits at approximately the same elevation as the highest flood levels, making it one of the few places where you can stand near the ancient waterline and look down at the scope of the inundation. On a clear day, Mount Hood rises behind the gorge, and you can trace the flood's path from the narrow canyon below to the wide Portland Basin beyond. This is the viewpoint that makes photographers linger -- and makes geologists gasp.
Open daily 6 a.m.–10 p.m., free admission, at 39210 E Historic Columbia River Highway in Corbett. Roughly 7 acres on the rim at Chanticleer Point, with two interpretive panels — one on the Historic Columbia River Highway, the other specifically on the Ice Age Floods. About 385,000 visitors per year.
The view from Chanticleer Point looks east into the western mouth of the Columbia River Gorge — directly down the path the Missoula floodwaters took as they exited the Gorge and spread into the Portland and Willamette basins. Crown Point (Vista House) sits directly across the line of sight at roughly the same elevation; both promontories were islands above the deepest flood flows, which here reached on the order of 800–1,000 feet deep. Looking west from this rim, the floor of the Columbia trough — now occupied by the river and Rooster Rock — was the bottom of the active flood channel.
No site-specific recent research; covered in the Columbia Gorge field-trip guides maintained by the IAFI Columbia River Gorge Chapter.
Within the IAFI Columbia River Gorge Chapter's coverage; the interpretive panel on Ice Age Floods at the viewpoint reflects coordinated NPS/IAFI/Oregon Parks interpretation along the Historic Highway.
Best at sunrise (the viewpoint faces east); spring through fall for clearest views. A natural first stop on any westbound Historic Columbia River Highway tour, paired with Vista House at Crown Point one mile east.
Every site along the trail will receive the full Terrain360 capture treatment: ground-level 360° panoramas, drone aerial imagery, and photogrammetry-based 3D models that visitors can spin in their browser. This page reserves the slots; the imagery flows in as field capture completes.
Ground-level 360° panorama, every step along the feature, captured by Terrain360 field crews.
Drone flyovers reveal the geometry of catastrophe — ripple marks, gravel bars, and scour patterns invisible from the ground.
Photogrammetry and Gaussian-splat models let visitors rotate, measure, and inspect features in detail-page WebGL viewers.