Wimahl, Nich'i-Wàna or Swah'netk'qhu

These are all Native American names for the Columbia River. I am back again in The Gorge working on a project for the college. The college sits high on a hill with a spectacular view of the Columbia River, Columbia Hills,  The Dalles Bridge and The Dalles Dam. 

The play of sunlight and clouds across the landscape was a delight as it highlighted different aspects of rock, river, and sky. I spent the night with a friend from our "old neighborhood" and this morning we enjoyed a delightful hike on her property before I returned to the city.

Background on the Columbia River:
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America.[9] The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. It flows northwest and then south into the US state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven US states and a Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by volume, the Columbia has the greatest flow of any North American river entering the Pacific (Wikipedia)