The Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest and the most powerful in North America by the volume reaching the sea. From its source in the Canadian Rockies it runs about 1,243 miles (2,000 km) through British Columbia and Washington, then turns west to form most of the Washington–Oregon border before emptying into the Pacific. It carries far more water than any other river on the West Coast.

The Columbia cut the only near-sea-level passage through the Cascade Range, the dramatic Columbia River Gorge, where the river slices between cliffs and waterfalls. That fall of water made it the most heavily dammed major river in the country — a staircase of huge hydroelectric dams, including Grand Coulee, that generate more hydropower than any other river system in North America while blocking the salmon runs that once defined it.

• Oregon
  The Beaver State, from rainforest coast to high desert flows through
• Portland
  A Pacific Northwest city where two rivers meet flows through
• Washington
  The Evergreen State, the wet and dry sides of the Cascades flows through
• The Snake River
  The Columbia's largest tributary, carver of Hells Canyon joined by