Hikes: Hood River Waterfront Park Walk
One of the surprising walks we found in Hood River is the Columbia River Waterfront Park walk, which extends from the Best Western on Marina Drive downriver, under the Interstate Bridge to White Salmon, Washington, past the beautiful beaches for Kite Boarders and Surfers, and around the Columbia River Hook, and back. The circuit is about 3.5 miles long (1.75 miles each way) and on a sunny day it is full of walkers and swimmers and bikers and fun.
We were staying at the Best Western for the wedding of Abby Lewis and Scott Jansen on May 23, 2023. The walk along the river was just the right amount of exercise to get us psyched for the wedding in White Salmon, Washington, across the Columbia River later that day.
The views back at the city of Hood River, with Mount Hood in the background are spectacular, taking your breath away. If it were not for the beautiful wedding, we would have stayed the afternoon admiring the changing shadows of the mountain and the river.
We spotted some fishermen, who had bagged a string of smallmouth bass and rainbow trout for their dinners. And we saw the wake boarders and canoe fans on the water’s edge.
We saw some beautiful osprey, turkey vultures, violet green swallows, scrub jays, nuthatches, crows, gulls, sand pipers, blackbirds and mourning doves, interspersed with house sparrows, starlings, and other non-native bird species.
That said, the wildlife was not the highlight of the day. Today was an ideal day to be on the water. Enjoying the Columbia River was a massive crowd of wakeboarders, kiteboarders, hang gliders, and all things wind and aerial. It was a magical and colorful display of the latest wetsuits, and water gear to enjoy this place: the wind surfing capital of Oregon.
Henry E. Hooper 