Pacific Northwest - Oregon

Vista House

A Karen Brown Recommendation

Continue on to Corbett and your first astounding view of the gorge at the Portland Women’s Forum State Park at Chanticleer Point. Everything is well marked. This is the former site of the Chanticleer Inn, where the highway’s visionaries met in 1913 to plan its construction. Samuel C. Lancaster, design engineer of the highway, picked the next spot, Crown Point, expressly for its potential as a prime observation point. He hired Edgar Lazarus to design Vista House (1918), a gray sandstone octagon building, offering stellar views from the observatory deck at the top of a narrow staircase. (Open daily from 8:30 am to 6 pm, April to mid-October.) While the Vista House itself could stand some upgrade attention, you won’t mind once you’re gazing at the Columbia some 700 feet below.

Located along this Karen Brown Itinerary:

I - Vines to Volcanoes-The Portland Area

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