Eastern Oregon: Columbia Gorge History, Shaniko & the Painted Hills

The only surviving building from the 1850 US Army installation that guarded the Dalles portage — the original surgeon's quarters, now a museum, contains an extraordinary collection of pioneer wagon-era artifacts, early Oregon settler furniture, and the most complete set of early Columbia Gorge photographs in existence. The context for the Columbia River as the final barrier for Oregon Trail emigrants is vivid here.

The Columbia River Gorge native rock art site at Horsethief Lake preserves 'Tsagaglalal' — 'She Who Watches' — a massive petroglyph face carved into a basalt cliff by the Wishram people, probably in the 15th century. Guided tours to the main site are available on Friday and Saturday mornings; the surrounding cliffs have dozens of additional petroglyph panels.

A Hood River brewery in a renovated industrial building with large windows facing Mt Hood — one of Oregon's best craft breweries, with a Belgian-influenced program that includes some of the finest sour and barrel-aged beers in the Pacific Northwest. The lunch menu is well above brewery standard.

A well-curated local history museum documenting Hood River's evolution from timber town to orchard country to windsurfing mecca — the collection covers the Japanese American farming community and the WWII Japanese internment from the valley specifically, with a nuance that larger institutions often miss.

A Hood River institution feeding hikers, windsurfers, and Gorge road-trippers for decades — seasonal Pacific Northwest cooking upstairs, casual pub fare and local craft beer downstairs. Columbia River views from the upper deck when weather allows. The right place to decompress after a day tracing the Columbia Gorge Highway.

At the turn of the 20th century, Shaniko was the wool-shipping capital of the world — the Columbia Southern Railway terminus that funneled the enormous Eastern Oregon sheep ranching output to Portland markets. The collapse of the Columbia Southern in 1911 ended Shaniko overnight; the 1901 water tower, the wool warehouse, the city hall, and the hotel all stand exactly where they were abandoned. Population: approximately 25.

The high desert road between Shaniko and the fossil beds passes through Antelope (pop. 47), site of the 1980s Rajneeshee commune that briefly renamed the town Rajneeshpuram. The restored courthouse and the returning ranching community of the surrounding Wheeler County give the landscape its proper character back.

A small-town café in the Wheeler County seat of Mitchell — the only lunch stop between Shaniko and the Painted Hills, with homemade soups, sandwiches, and the kind of hospitality that keeps people coming back to eastern Oregon country kitchens.

The Painted Hills Unit of John Day Fossil Beds is the most photographed landscape in Oregon — smooth clay hills in fifteen colors from deep black to ochre to brick red to cream, deposited in distinct volcanic layers over 35 million years. The color changes with the light and the moisture; late afternoon gives the most saturated reds and golds. The short Painted Cove Trail loops through the red hills in 0.5 miles.

All-day dining, espresso drinks & a bar offered in a relaxed, fashionable venue that has a terrace.

The visitor center for John Day Fossil Beds National Monument holds a genuine world-class paleontology collection — 40 million years of Pacific Northwest fossil fauna, from the Eocene forests through the Oligocene savannas and the Miocene grasslands. The working laboratory behind the glass lets visitors watch preparators cleaning specimens from the current field season. One of the best natural history museums west of the Mississippi, free admission.

The blue-green smectite clay of the Blue Basin forms a miniature canyon of alien-colored badlands — the 3-mile Island in Time Trail passes through the basin floor where Oligocene fossils are still washing out of the exposed hillsides. The NPS rangers occasionally point out specimens in situ.

A historic stage stop on the John Day River at the tiny community of Service Creek — burgers, cold drinks, and float trip rentals in a setting that looks exactly as it did when the stagecoach ran through. One of the most remote and perfectly situated lunch stops on the Oregon road system.