The Columbia and Snake rivers

By special arrangement

The Columbia and Snake River tours are run by a third party, through which RVT can book you discounted tours.  Karl has personally led multiple tours on this trip, but currently attends only custom group tours on this particular jaunt.

In addition to taking you through some of America’s most beautiful scenery this cruise has a story to tell.... actually two stories:

You will be there to travel in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark on the 200th anniversary of their breath-taking achievement. If you are like me, they are just names out of your history book. I promise you, after you come on this trip they will take on flesh and blood reality for you.

Did you grow up marveling at the wonders of The Grand Coulee Dam, at the benefits of cheap electricity from mighty power dams? Then did you hear the environmental cry that the dams are exterminating the salmon? Did you hear tales of Indian fishing grounds drowned? There is an exciting, contemporary struggle going on in the Northwest. Come and decide for yourself who is right.

There are big savings if you come with River Valley Tours!

Cruise the Columbia and Snake Rivers

$100 savings as RVT tour discount

Save an additional $250 per person if you sign up and pay six months prior to departure.
(or $125 per person if you sign up and pay within three months of departure.)

Call to enroll with a credit card. Or call just to ask questions.
800 836 2128

Cruise the Columbia and Snake Rivers

Example Itinerary from a past tour:

Portland

Your journey begins on the Rose City’s central Willamette River waterfront. The first evening you will cruise slowly up the Willamette, passing Portland’s sparkling skyline and the beautiful garden homes that line the riverbanks.

Bonneville Dam and the
Columbia River Gorge

You will dock to explore the workings of massive Bonneville Dam, and then drive to an up-close view of Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. Here the river winds in a deep cleft through the Cascade Range, past forested mountain walls and multitudes of colorful sailboarders skittering across the waves.

Astoria and Fort Clatsop

Astoria is just inside the famously turbulent Columbia River Bar. Conditions permitting, you may cruise right out to the mouth of the river. Nearby you will visit Fort Clatsop National Historic Park, set in a shady forest, which is the site where Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery spent a rainy winter in 1805-1806. Nearby on a spit of land, the Civil War-era Fort Stevens guards the mouth of the Columbia.

Walla Walla and the Wine Country

On your visit to the historic site of the Whitman Mission, site of a famous Indian massacre in 1847, you will see a Conestoga wagon standing in the ruts of the Oregon Trail. In nearby Walla Walla, visit the cavalry-era Fort Walla Walla, and enjoy a special luncheon at the meticulously restored, historic Marcus Whitman Hotel. You will also sample the best of Washington’s burgeoning wine country at the Three Rivers Winery nearby.

Hells Canyon

On board this morning in Clarkston, you will hear the tales of a Nez Perce storyteller and poet. Then, you will travel deep into Hells Canyon by jetboat. Nearly 100 miles of this spectacular stretch of the Snake River is freeflowing white water, and it is quite exhilarating to roar up and down the rapids. The mountains that line the canyon rise to nearly 8,000 feet overhead, making Hells Canyon the deepest in North America.

The Dalles and Hood River

At The Dalles you will visit the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, which offers spectacular dioramas and displays of the region’s geography and history. An included tour takes you to the Maryhill Museum of Art, which was formerly railroad baron Sam Hill’s country mansion. Maryhill stands in solitary splendor on an isolated bluff high above the Columbia River.