When traveling in the Gorge, support local communities.

Connect with local communities.

  • Shop, eat, drink and stay with local businesses.
  • Research volunteer opportunities such as trail work parties, and sign up in advance.
  • Consider how and where you share information on social media and the actions your images may encourage others to do.
  • Explore cultural and tribal centers to learn more about history and people’s relationship to place.
  • Research the operation hours of cultural and tribal museums and visitor centers, which tend to vary seasonally.
  • While COVID-19 poses a risk to you and others, respect the requests of individual businesses.
Joey Hamilton

Deepen Your Sense of Place

Subscribe to the Hear in the Gorge podcast—stories that will change your sense of place. While driving to and from the Gorge, tune into this radio-documentary style podcast to learn about some of the people and places that make this region so unique:

  • Meet Terrie Brigham, of Brigham Fish Market (Cascade Locks) and member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and learn about the Fish Wars on the Columbia River.
  • Meet members of the Crag Rats and hear one harrowing story of a father-and-son rescue on Mt. Hood.
  • Learn about Minoru “Min” Yasui, the first Oregonian to ever receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
  • Take a journey along the final leg of the Oregon Trail.
  • Discover why the federal government hired Woody Guthrie, one of America’s best-known protest folk singers, to write 26 songs about the Columbia River.

Listen on SoundCloud or subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Hear in the Gorge is produced by Hood River resident, Sarah Fox.

Give back to the Gorge.

Pledge for the Wild. After visiting the Gorge, we invite you to consider making a Pledge of $1/hour for the time you spend mountain biking, hiking to epic peaks or wildflower meadows, fishing pristine rivers and waterways, or any of the other epic adventures you’ve just had. It’s easy. Just text the phrase WILD4GORGE to 44321. Make a donation and know you are helping to protect the outdoor resources you just played in so others can continue to enjoy them in the future.

Support search and rescue. Whether you spend a lot of time in the outdoors or just a few days a year, you never know when something will go wrong. The volunteer search and rescue (SAR) teams who get called in to help when someone goes lost or gets seriously hurt give their time and spend their own money purchasing the rescue gear they need to help people return home safely. Consider donating to any or all of our local SAR organizations.

Volunteer. Consider volunteering with one of these groups working in the Gorge to maintain parks and trails: