Mount Defiance (4,959') is generally considered the highest point in the Columbia River Gorge, and accordingly one of the toughest local hikes. The Mount Defiance Trail climbs over 4800' in just 5.6 miles from Starvation Creek Trailhead to the summit with spectacular views that include Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount St Helens, Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson.

The Columbia River supports one of the world's largest and most complex hydropower systems, with 14 dams along the main river and over 450 dams throughout the basin

The Columbia River corridor connects the Pacific's maritime climate with drier inland climates; this unique passage creates notoriously strong winds that generally blow from the west in summer, and from the east in fall and winter

Mount Adams (12,776') is capped by 12 glaciers: Adams, Klickitat, W. Salmon, Lava, Mazama, Lyman, Avalanche, Rusk, Pinnacle, Wilson, Gotchen and Crescent

Short sections on the final approach run across scree and talus, which can be a little tricky with snow and ice

Mount St Helens (9,677' before the 1980 eruption, 8,363' today), has erupted more than any volcano in the Cascade Range over the last 4,000 years

While seeing other peaks from Mount Defiance is a major draw, it also offers a uniquely comprehensive view from dry, eastern grasslands to the coastal mountains

Starvation Creek Falls drops 227' in two stages into a high-walled amphitheater just steps from the trailhead, and is arguably the most interesting of the 4 waterfalls in this area

A blistering climb eases briefly near treeline (4.4 miles : 4,170') with well-earned views across the gorge to Helens and Adams

Hole-in-the-Wall Falls was created in 1938 by highway builders who, when faced with frequent flooding, blasted a whole in the bedrock and redirected Warren Creek away from the road

The Washington side of the gorge is comprised of dense basalt over softer, unconsolidated rock beds which tilt south along the buried slope of an extinct volcano

Vine maple is the dominant understory tree/shrub in this forest; it prefers moist, nitrogen-rich soil and is among the first trees/shrubs to reclaim disturbed spaces

Mount Adams' combined glacier area decreased by 49% from 1904 to 2006 (Danielle J. Sitts, Andrew G. Fountain and Matthew J. Hoffman, Department of Geology, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon)

The Mount Defiance Trail runs right across the lowest tier of Lancaster Falls, which originates from springs directly above

Mount Hood (11,239') is the tallest mountain in Oregon and has 11 glaciers on its flanks