I recently took part of my team from work (those that live in the Washington/Oregon area) on a fun day off to ride the sternwheeler Columbia Gorge on the Columbia River for a few hours. The boat operates out of Cascade Locks, OR near the area known as Bridge of the Gods.
Native American lore contains numerous legends to explain the eruptions of Mount St. Helens and other cascade volcanoes. The most famous is the Bridge of the Gods legend told by the Klickitats. In their tale, the chief of all the gods, Saghalie and his two sons Pahto and Wyeast traveled down the Columbia River in search of a suitable place to settle. They came upon the area known today as The Dalles and thought they had never seen such a beautiful land. The sons quarreled over the land and to solve the dispute their father shot two arrows from his mighty bow; one to the north and one to the south. Pahto followed the arrow to the north and settled there while Wyeast did the same for the arrow to the south. Saghile then built the Bridge of the Gods so that his family could meet periodically. When the two sons fell in love with the same beautiful maiden named Loowit, she could not choose between them. The two young chiefs fought over her, burying villages and forests in the process. The area was devastated and the earth shook so violently that the huge bridge fell into the river, creating the cascades of the Columbia River Gorge. For punishment Saghalie struck down each of the lovers and transformed them into great mountains where they fell. Wyeast with his head lifted in pride became the volcano known today as Mt. Hood and Pahto, with his head bent toward his fallen love became the volcano known today as Mt. Adams. The fair Loowit became Mount St. Helens, known to the Klickitat as Louwala-Clough which means “smoking Mountain” in their language.
Now for the scientific geological version…
The original Bridge of the Gods was created approximately 300 years ago by the Bonneville Slide which dammed the Columbia River Gorge in the modern-day Pacific Northwest sometime in the 18th century. It was a landslide across the Columbia over 200 feet high. Eventually the river overcame the landslide and wore its way through the rock and debris creating the Cascade Rapids.
Cascade Locks is a small town of roughly 1100 people in northern Oregon which took its name from a set of locks built to improve navigation around the Cascade Rapids on the Columbia River. The locks were completed in 1896 but were subsequently submerged in 1938, as the waters rose behind the newly completed Bonneville Lock and Dam. The modern steel Bridge of the Gods, which was raised 40 feet during the construction of Bonneville dam, is frequently used by hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail to cross the Columbia River. Cascade Locks is the lowest poin
t along the trail which runs from the Mexican border in California to the Canadian border in Washington.
The Columbia Gorge is a sternwheel river boat meaning the paddle wheel is located at the aft end of the boat. We boarded the boat at 10:45 and shoved off at 11:00 sharp headed downriver toward Bonneville Dam. As we headed downstream I climbed to the pilot house and requested permission to come aboard the bridge. 
Permission granted, I asked a bunch of questions of the captain (who happened to be a female and who's husband was the boat's chief engineer). As we began our float over what was once Cascade Rapids (it's calm like a lake now), the water depth was 68 feet. Once we were just past the rapids, we read 160 feet of depth! This is a good indication of just how wild those rapids must have been to drop that fast in such a short distance. We made our way downriver, turning around as we approached Bonneville Dam. As we came about and headed back up river, we could see all the native American fishing platforms where descendants of the Chinook Indians still dip net the Chinook salmon and steelhead.
We passed Cascade Locks once again, going east up river when the captain announced that there was a big smoke plume aft of the boat. We made our to the stern in time to see a major fire growing on the north bank of the river. The fire turned out to be the Stevenson Co-Ply 
Mill complex, a former plywood production mill, which was abandoned in 1992. As the captain pulled to boat within a few hundred yards of the fire, we watched a Bell AH-1 Cobra fire fighting helicopter perform helittack operations using a 324 gallon Bambi Bucket. As the fire came under control, airborne debris in the form of ashes and cinders fell on us until we docked once again at Cascade Locks, across the river from the fire.
We all left to head home, lucky to be living down river since the road east of the plywood mill fire was still closed due to firefighting efforts. Today we got more than we paid for...a trip on the river plus ringside seats to watch the fire fighting efforts. Not bad for a work day!
