You’ve probably seen the photos of the Columbia River Gorge. It’s that misty, moss-covered wonderland where waterfalls tumble off basalt cliffs and windsurfers look like tiny colorful specks against a massive blue backdrop. It’s gorgeous. But honestly, most people driving along I-84 or taking a cruise ship up from Portland don't realize they're looking at one of the most engineered, argued-over, and politically charged plumbing systems on the planet. The Columbia and Snake River system isn't just a scenic route; it’s a 1,200-mile battleground between clean energy, salmon extinction, and the very survival of inland farming.
People tend to lump them together, and for good reason. The Snake is the Columbia’s largest tributary. It starts in the high country of Wyoming, loops through Idaho, and eventually crashes into the Columbia near Pasco, Washington. Together, they drain a basin roughly the size of France.
If you want to understand the Pacific Northwest, you have to understand these rivers. But here’s the thing: everyone has a different version of what these rivers "should" be. To a barge pilot in Lewiston, Idaho, the Snake River is a liquid highway that allows them to ship wheat to the Pacific Ocean from 465 miles inland. To a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, these rivers are a sacred home for "nusoox" (salmon) that have been decimated by concrete walls.
The Concrete Great Wall: How Dams Changed Everything
We can't talk about the Columbia and Snake River without talking about the dams. There are 14 of them on the main stem of the Columbia alone, and hundreds more on its tributaries. The big ones—Grand Coulee, Bonneville, The Dalles—are literal monuments to New Deal-era ambition.
They did exactly what they were supposed to do.
They tamed the floods. They turned the desert of Eastern Washington into a multi-billion dollar agricultural powerhouse. Most importantly, they provided the "cheap" hydroelectric power that fueled the aluminum plants for WWII planes and now keeps the lights on in Seattle and Boise. The Columbia River Basin provides about 40% of all U.S. hydroelectricity. That's a staggering amount of carbon-free energy.
But there was a cost. A massive one.
Before the dams, the Columbia was home to the greatest salmon runs on earth. Estimates suggest 10 to 16 million fish returned every year. Today? We’re lucky if it’s a fraction of that. The dams created slack-water reservoirs. Instead of a cold, fast-moving river, the fish now have to navigate a series of warm, still lakes. Young smolts getting swept out to sea get disoriented or eaten by predators like pikeminnow and Caspian terns that thrive in this artificial environment.
The Lower Snake River Dam Debate
This is where things get really heated. While most people agree we aren't tearing down Grand Coulee (it’s too big and provides too much power), there is a massive movement to breach the four lower dams on the Snake River: Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite.
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Why these four?
Because they sit right in the way of salmon trying to reach the high-altitude, pristine spawning grounds in central Idaho. Scientists from the Nez Perce Tribe and organizations like Trout Unlimited argue that removing these four dams is the only way to save the Snake River spring/summer Chinook and steelhead from extinction.
It sounds simple. Just blow them up, right?
Not quite.
If you remove those dams, you lose the ability to barge grain. Suddenly, thousands of semi-trucks are on the road, or you’re relying on a rail system that is already over capacity. You also lose the irrigation for orchards that produce a huge chunk of the nation's apples and cherries. Farmers in places like the Palouse are terrified of what breaching would do to their bottom line. It’s a classic "environment vs. economy" standoff, though recently, some politicians like Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) have tried to find a middle ground with a multi-billion dollar proposal to replace the dam's benefits while letting the river run free.
Navigating the Columbia: More Than Just a Cruise
If you're visiting, you’re likely going to see the river from a boat. The Columbia and Snake River cruising industry has exploded lately. It’s basically the "European River Cruise" experience but with Lewis and Clark history instead of medieval castles.
But here’s a tip: don’t just stay on the boat.
The geology here is insane. Most of what you see was carved out by the Missoula Floods about 15,000 years ago. Imagine a wall of water 400 feet high moving at 60 miles per hour, carrying icebergs and boulders the size of houses. It scoured out the Gorge and left behind those sheer basalt walls.
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- The Reach: If you want to see what the river used to look like, go to the Hanford Reach. It’s the only non-tidal, free-flowing section of the Columbia left in the U.S. (outside of the very headwaters).
- The Wind: Hood River is the windsurfing capital for a reason. The temperature difference between the wet west side and the dry east side of the Cascades creates a natural wind tunnel.
- The Locks: Going through a lock at a dam like Bonneville is a trip. You’re in a massive concrete tub, the gates close, and suddenly you’re dropping or rising 70 feet in a few minutes. It’s a weirdly industrial yet quiet experience.
What Most People Get Wrong About Salmon Recovery
There's this idea that "fish ladders" fixed everything. You've probably seen them—the little concrete stairs that let salmon jump over the dams.
They work for the adults. The problem is the babies (smolts).
Coming back upstream is hard, but going downstream is deadly. The pressure changes in the turbines can kill them. The heat in the reservoirs can kill them. To combat this, the Army Corps of Engineers literally puts fish on barges and trucks to drive them past the dams. Yes, we have "fish buses."
It’s an expensive, high-tech Band-Aid. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on habitat restoration and hatchery programs. Some people, like those at the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, point to these efforts as a success because they've prevented total collapse. Others say we’re just managing extinction.
The Energy Crisis Nobody Talks About
We’re in a weird spot. Everyone wants to move away from fossil fuels. Wind and solar are great, but they are intermittent. You need "baseload" power that can turn on the second the sun goes down or the wind stops blowing.
Hydro is that baseload.
The Columbia and Snake River dams allow the Pacific Northwest to have some of the lowest carbon footprints in the country. If we take the dams out, we have to find a way to replace that power immediately. Battery technology isn't quite there yet for the scale we need, and building new nuclear plants takes decades. This is the "green-on-green" conflict. Do we prioritize the carbon-free grid or the biological integrity of the river?
Cultural Significance: A Living History
For the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Yakama Nation, the Nez Perce, and the Warm Springs Tribes, these rivers are not "resources." They are relatives.
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Before the dams, Celilo Falls was the center of the universe for indigenous trade in the Northwest. It was a massive series of cascades where people fished for millennia. In 1957, the gates of The Dalles Dam closed, and in a matter of hours, Celilo Falls was submerged under a rising reservoir.
It’s still there, under the water.
When you stand at the overlook near The Dalles today, you’re looking at a graveyard of a culture's most important site. That’s a heavy thing to sit with while you’re eating a salmon burger at a local bistro. But it’s the reality of how the modern Northwest was built.
Real-World Tips for Exploring the Basin
If you're planning a trip or just want to see the Columbia and Snake River system for yourself, don't just stick to the tourist traps.
- Check the Fish Counts: Before you go, look at the University of Washington's DART (Data Access in Real Time) website. It shows you exactly how many fish are passing each dam every day. It’s a sobering but fascinating look at the pulse of the river.
- Visit Maryhill Museum: It’s a weird, beautiful art museum on a cliff on the Washington side. It has an incredible collection of indigenous beadwork and, strangely, a bunch of Rodin sculptures.
- Drive Hwy 14: Most people take I-84 on the Oregon side. Highway 14 on the Washington side is slower, narrower, and has way better views of the river's scale.
- The Snake River Canyon: Go to Twin Falls, Idaho. You can see where Evel Knievel tried to jump the canyon. The sheer depth of the Snake River canyon there shows you just how much power water has over time.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The future of the Columbia and Snake River is currently being negotiated in high-stakes meetings between the Biden-Harris administration, state governors, and Tribal leaders. In late 2023, a landmark agreement was reached to "stay" litigation for ten years while the government invests in Tribal-led clean energy projects.
It’s not a decision to breach the dams yet, but it’s the closest the U.S. has ever come to admitting that the current system is failing the fish.
The next decade will decide the fate of these waterways. We are witnessing a massive shift in how we value nature versus how we value infrastructure. It’s messy. It’s expensive. And it’s absolutely vital.
Actionable Next Steps for the Curious
If you want to actually do something rather than just read about it, start here:
- Support Local Fisheries: Buy "Columbia River Salmon" only when it’s verified as sustainably caught, ideally from Tribal fishers who have treaty rights to the river.
- Visit the Dams: Most have visitor centers. Go to Bonneville. Walk through the underwater viewing windows. Seeing a four-foot-long sturgeon or a battered Chinook salmon eye-to-eye changes your perspective.
- Follow the Science: Keep an eye on the NOAA Fisheries reports regarding the "Columbia River Partnership." It’s the most up-to-date look at what recovery actually looks like.
- Explore the Inland Empire: Take a trip to Lewiston or Clarkston. See the "seaport" 460 miles from the ocean. It helps you understand why the people living there fight so hard to keep the river the way it is.
The Columbia and Snake River system is a masterpiece of engineering and a tragedy of ecology. You can't have one without the other. Understanding that tension is the only way to truly see the river for what it is: the lifeblood of the Northwest, currently on life support.