Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint offers one of the most photographed panoramas of the Columbia River Gorge -- and during the Missoula Floods, this viewpoint would have provided a bird's-eye view of a wall of water filling the...
Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint offers one of the most photographed panoramas of the Columbia River Gorge -- and during the Missoula Floods, this viewpoint would have provided a bird's-eye view of a wall of water filling the gorge from rim to rim. The viewpoint looks east toward Crown Point and Vista House, with the gorge stretching into the distance, and west toward Portland where the floods spread across the Willamette Valley. At peak flood stage, the water level in this section of the gorge exceeded 700 feet above the modern river, meaning the entire panoramic view visible today was submerged under a churning mass of muddy, iceberg-laden floodwater. The viewpoint sits at approximately the same elevation as the highest flood levels, making it one of the few places where you can stand near the ancient waterline and look down at the scope of the inundation. On a clear day, Mount Hood rises behind the gorge, and you can trace the flood's path from the narrow canyon below to the wide Portland Basin beyond. This is the viewpoint that makes photographers linger -- and makes geologists gasp.
Open daily 6 a.m.–10 p.m., free admission, at 39210 E Historic Columbia River Highway in Corbett. Roughly 7 acres on the rim at Chanticleer Point, with two interpretive panels, one on the Historic Columbia River Highway, the other specifically on the Ice Age Floods. About 385,000 visitors per year.
The view from Chanticleer Point looks east into the western mouth of the Columbia River Gorge, directly down the path the Missoula floodwaters took as they exited the Gorge and spread into the Portland and Willamette basins. Crown Point (Vista House) sits directly across the line of sight at roughly the same elevation; both promontories were islands above the deepest flood flows, which here reached on the order of 800–1,000 feet deep. Looking west from this rim, the floor of the Columbia trough, now occupied by the river and Rooster Rock, was the bottom of the active flood channel.
No site-specific recent research; covered in the Columbia Gorge field-trip guides maintained by the IAFI Columbia River Gorge Chapter.
Within the IAFI Columbia River Gorge Chapter's coverage; the interpretive panel on Ice Age Floods at the viewpoint reflects coordinated NPS/IAFI/Oregon Parks interpretation along the Historic Highway.
Best at sunrise (the viewpoint faces east); spring through fall for clearest views. A natural first stop on any westbound Historic Columbia River Highway tour, paired with Vista House at Crown Point one mile east.
Three vantages no single photograph can hold, the same treatment that made Dry Falls legible.
Ground-level panoramas along the feature, so the scale of the flood landscape is something you stand inside.
An aerial reveals the geometry of catastrophe: scour, channels, and bars that are invisible at eye level.
A model of a key outcrop you can rotate and measure in the browser, the rock itself, on the page.
Capture window mid-June through mid-July 2026 · slots fill on this page as the campaign delivers.
Flood-extent overlay shows the maximum reach of the Missoula Floods.
The site in its place along the flood path, with the maximum flood extent drawn over the modern map.
View on the interactive map Cinematic timeline · 3D flood · every captured site