06-17-2026 Wednesday, Columbia River Gorge, Washington and Oregon

- July 13, 2026

We are up and off to 1) check out the tunnel for the ride home. 2) Head down to the Dalles Visitor Center on the Oregon side.

The tunnel was an alternate way to leave other than taking the crazy bridge. The tunnel is narrow and only 12.5 inches high where it curves up. This would mean we would have to go straight down the middle. Something for us to think about. We are aware that logging trucks take this tunnel, but we will have to think about this.

Well, the Visitor Center was closed. It’s only open Friday-Sunday. The information site was not updated. But we were able to see a life-size eagle's nest outside.

Instead, we headed West to the Bonneville Locks & Dam and the visitor center on the Dalles side. A huge facility on the Columbia River, in addition to a dam, is a fish conservation site, hydroelectric generation, and locks for ships to navigate.

Life-Size Eagle's Nest

It was an interesting place to explore. They actually count the fish as they pass through the fish ladder, a passageway for fish that migrate upstream seasonally. The fish swim 60’ up steps, like ladders. This helps them swim upstream and return to their spawning grounds.

Fish Ladders

It is someone’s actual job to count, categorize, and size the fish. This is done by volunteers who go through training. The fish they count are:

Steelhead: August
Chinook: September
Coho: September
Sockeye: June and July
Shad: June
Lamprey (March 1–November 30, with the majority of the run passing in June and July)

One of the desks used to count fish.
The quality is not that great, but it was the best I could do

There are viewing windows to observe the fish navigate the ladders. We also observed the lamprey using its power “mouth” to attach to the windows. I’ve provided photos below. They are strange-looking fish, as long as an eel, but with a mouth like something out of the Aliens movies. Very weird.

Lamprey with mouths attached
to the viewing window

Side View

Next, we strolled over to the other part of the dam to see the turbines. The volunteer there told us that if we went to the Washington side of the dam, we could tour the turbines and even walk around one. Looks like our plan for tomorrow is made.

I was able to purchase stickers at the visitor center and get passport stamps. As we left the visitor center, we drove to an area where we could see the whole dam. We were starving and decided to eat at Thunder Island Brewing. We sat outside because the weather was so nice. The deck has a beautiful view of one of the bridges. We had steak and salmon bowls that hit the spot. Both our cider and beer were tasty. We would recommend this for a bite to eat.

Back at our campground, we discovered an Eagle’s nest across the road and had a clear view, but a better view with our binoculars. We discovered two eglets in the nest. It was a blast watching Mom and Dad fly across our campsite, bringing fish to the nest. I think we sat out for an hour watching them before retiring for the evening.

Oh yeah, we added the Washington sticker to our map. Yahoo!