View Points where Nothing Can Be Seen and other Portland, OR Tourist Trap Tips

Portland has a number of hills, and a number of them have view points established on them. On a good day, you can see Mt. Rainier all the way up in the Seattle area from Portland. Views of Mt. Hood are also common and some of Portland's most popular post cards feature downtown Portland with Mt. Hood in the background.

Unfortunately, as the picture shows, air pollution in Portland can sometimes be very bad, and these view points quite useless since you can't see more than a few miles at best. In recent years the number of good days has been cut significantly due to population increases and other problems that change the air quality.

Furthermore, the particles in the air cause some significant problems with taking photos. You might see Mt. Hood just fine with your eyes, but due to the wavelengths of light cut out by the air pollution frequently when you take a photo these days Mt. Hood simply vanishes - unless you have the proper filters for your lenses.

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At Least Do This: If you can, try to plan your visits to these view points around the weather.

The air is much clearer after it rains and washes all the garbage out of the air. Thankfully, it rains a lot here. However, while it is raining you won't be able to see anything either.

The best time to avoid the pollution problem is to visit these places when it is a sunny day, but rained heavily the day before (or even better just that morning) so that all the garbage in the air is gone. However, it may not be possible for you to plan your visits around the weather to such a great degree.

Many of these places are interesting to visit even if you can't see much, but they are much better if you can see the mountains and other land marks that are pointed out on the signs.
Alternative: The further out of town you go, the better view you will have. Frequently, the further east you go the better due to winds caused by the Columbia River Gorge.

Rocky Butte near Interstate 205 is usually good on sunny days, and Powell Butte Park normally also has a good view on sunny days - though you can not see Mt. Rainier from Powell Butte due to Mt. St. Helens being in the way from this angle.

Even further east, Troutdale and Gresham have some locations that have good views of Mt. Hood, but not as many high places so the views are not quite as spectacular.

If you are going to visit the Columbia River gorge, one great viewpoint is Angel's Rest which can be accessed from the old Columbia River highway. (The signs will point to "Historic Highway" or "Historic Columbia River Highway" but most of us locals just call it the "old highway".)

I will openly admit that I have not gone on this tour. Portland Walking Tours used to have a reasonably good reputation, but in recent years some of their tour offerings have not exactly been up to reasonable expectations.

Their "“Beyond Bizarre” tour certainly has a bad reputation in terms of being a tourist trap:
http://wweek.com/editorial/3351/9871/
is one example.

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At Least Do This: Just be prepared for it to be a disappointment for the price.
Alternative: Depends on your budget. Walk over to Waterfront Park and get tickets for the Portland Spirit dinner cruise? Opera, concert or ballet? Really, downtown Portland has much to offer, but the gentrification in recent years has certainly taken away any "haunted" old buildings that are open for touring.

Try Portland Walking Tours regular historic downtown tour instead, or one of the other options that are more factual and less drama and false information.