May 7, 2015 -

This is one of my favorites loops. You start in the Columbia River Gorge and end in the Gorge. It is amazing how quickly the scenery changes, since you move quickly through the climatic shift from Western Washington to Eastern Washington. The Gorge makes this possible without actually crossing over the Cascade Mountain Range, since the Gorge simply cuts right through them. You also get some of the changes going from the near-sea-level Columbia River at the bottom of the Gorge up through the hills to a large plateau of farms and ranches that have a dead-on view of Mt. Adams. When you get up there, you feel like you´re in a completely different part of the Country, maybe Montana. Then it´s on to the dry side of the State down switch-backs into and back out of the beautiful Klickitat River Canyon. From there you ride across an arid plain, then wind back down to the Klickitat River following it all the way back to the Columbia River Gorge. This route has all the twists and turns you can ask for, nice long straights, and beautiful scenery. But the most amazing part is the variation; it´s like you´ve travelled a full day in less than three hours.