Map › USA › Arlington & Threemile Canyon › Threemile Canyon

Columbia River Gorge e laghi interni · Threemile Canyon Park near Boardman, Oregon side of the Columbia River · Boardman, Oregon, 13 miles east; Arlington is the next town west

Threemile Canyon

also known as Three Mile Canyon, Threemile Canyon Park, Quesnel Park, Threemile Canyon Recreation Area

advanced onlylow crowds

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

On this page

Wind
- Month by month
Forecast
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
- Rescue
Hazards
Rules & access
Tips
Getting there
FAQ

Nearby Arlington 21 km · straight-line distance

SeasonMay to Septhe months riders and schools name How windy15-30 knotsthermal, cross-shore Launchokaccess rules on record, below Watermixed21°C in summer · 13 things riders flag LevelIntermediate to advancedwith a caveat, in the Level section

Schoolsnone named here

From the airportno transfer time publishedTri-Cities (PSC)

When it fills in

Light in the morning, building through the day, strongest in the afternoon.

Threemile Canyon is a Corps of Engineers park on the Oregon bank of the Columbia, a mile off I-84 and roughly halfway between Arlington and Boardman, at the far eastern end of the Gorge wind corridor.

Thermal westerlies blow up the river almost every day from May to September against a moderate-to-strong downstream current, and the result is swell: small to medium on the Oregon side, much bigger on the Washington side, biggest and steepest about half a mile upwind. That swell is the entire reason to come.

The kite launch is sketchy and the site is rated intermediate to expert; the shoreline is boulders and sagebrush, not sand. It also works as a downwind takeout run from Blalock or Arlington, and picking that takeout out from the water is hard, because it is rock-strewn and easy to overshoot.

Camping in the gravel lot is free, there is a vault toilet and a hand pump, and in warm weather the gnats and mosquitoes swarm. Nobody is coming to get you, since no road reaches the river between Blalock and Arlington.

The wind

locals call it westerly

Direction

cross-shoreW

Kite sizes

4567891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

Character

thermal

fills in: Light in the morning, building through the day, strongest in the afternoon.

Typical strength

15-30 knots is the Gorge-wide summer figure; there is no wind sensor at the launch itself, so riders read the neighbouring stations

Strong and often gusty, which is the Gorge norm. Wind against the downstream current is what builds the swell people come here for.

Thermal westerlies blow nearly every day from May through September, driven by the pressure difference between cool marine air to the west and hot dry air inland. Summer averages through the corridor are commonly given as 15-30 knots, and on a strong day the stretch from Mosier east to Threemile Canyon has been forecast at 25-35 mph.

Nothing published breaks that down for this launch specifically. Modelled hourly wind for the cell ranks the months the same way riders do: May and June at the top, July close behind, August and September a step down, and October through March well off.

That reanalysis smooths a river corridor badly and reads far below the numbers people ride on, so take it for the shape of the season and not for the strength.

Thermal or synoptic

Gorge westerly pressure-gradient wind

The quiver, in words

Nothing is published for this launch and no sensor sits on it, so these are indicative sizes for a 75-85 kg rider, worked back from the 15-30 knot summer figure for the corridor and the 25-35 mph given for the eastern stretch on a strong day. A 9 m is the light-day kite, for 15-18 knots.A 7 m covers the ordinary 20-25 knot afternoon. A 5 or 6 m is what the good days here actually want, and the swell people drive out for arrives with the wind at that end. Twelve metres has little use at this launch: if that is what you would rig, the corridor is not on.Wind against the downstream current makes the water feel harder than the number suggests, so err small.

Forecast

Month by month

Jan11
Feb25
Mar26
Apr32
May, riders' month37
Jun, riders' month33
Jul, riders' month40
Aug, riders' month26
Sep, riders' month27
Oct11
Nov13
Dec8

windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+)

Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep.

11%Jan
25%Feb
26%Mar
32%Apr
37%May
33%Jun
40%Jul
26%Aug
27%Sep
11%Oct
13%Nov
8%Dec

windy days per month (3 h+ at 12 kn+) · season highlighted

Month	Windy days	Force 4+	12 kn or more	Knots	From	Peaks at	Air	Readings
Jan	11%	24%	21%	8 kt	NE	13:00	1.3°C	62
Feb	25%	40%	40%	10.3 kt	WSW	14:00	4.3°C	57
Mar	26%	50%	42%	11.2 kt	W	16:00	8°C	62
Apr	32%	53%	52%	11.9 kt	W	16:00	11°C	60
May	37%	61%	56%	12.7 kt	WSW	16:00	17.2°C	62
Jun	33%	50%	47%	12.1 kt	WSW	16:00	22.2°C	60
Jul	40%	48%	45%	11 kt	WSW	17:00	28.1°C	62
Aug	26%	44%	35%	11 kt	WSW	15:00	26.8°C	62
Sep	27%	40%	35%	10.2 kt	WSW	15:00	21.4°C	60
Oct	11%	27%	24%	8.6 kt	W	15:00	14.5°C	62
Nov	13%	22%	20%	8.5 kt	NE	14:00	5.2°C	60
Dec	8%	16%	13%	7.3 kt	NE	14:00	2.7°C	62

modelled

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

Modelled from the operational forecast archive at 1.5–7 km (2023-2024), daylight hours only, not a ground station: it resolves thermal, lake and valley winds far better than coarse reanalysis but still tends to understate a strong local thermal. A windy day has at least three consecutive daylight hours at 12 knots or more. The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

High-resolution weather model (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical forecast archive — best-match operational model (ICON-D2 / AROME / ICON-EU / GFS by region), not a ground station · 2023-2024

The water

Type

mixed

Standing depth

false

Tides

None. This is the John Day pool, also called Lake Umatilla — a dammed reach of the Columbia where the level is set by the dam.

Temperature

21°C summer

Wetsuit

The pool runs warm for a big river: around 21 C on average in August, and above 20 C from mid-July to mid-September. A shorty covers the peak. Either side of that window the water is well under 20 C and a full suit is the sensible call.

Currents

Moderate to moderately strong. The river runs west, the wind blows east, so current and wind oppose each other, and that is precisely what stands the swell up.

Swell is small to medium on the Oregon side, extra-large over on the Washington side, and extra-large and steep about half a mile upwind. The shoreline is gravel and boulders, not sand.

Your level

not for beginners hereintermediateadvanced

Rated intermediate to expert. The kite launch is awkward, the shoreline is boulders and sagebrush, the current is moderate to strong and there is nobody around for miles. Not a place to be learning, and not a place to be alone on a marginal day.

The scene

What riders come here for

swell ridingremote sessionsdownwindersfreeridesolitude

Empty most of the time. Boaters and fishermen use the ramp, free campers park up in the gravel lot, and wind riders turn up when the corridor lights up. No shop, no scene, no anyone.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

No school names this spot

Nobody has been recorded teaching or running a boat here.

On your own

Room to launch: ok

access rules on record

Somewhere else

Arlington, 21 km

Arlington

Every spot within 40 km is on the map at the top of this page, with its distance under it.

Rescue

None. There are no road access points along the river between Blalock and Arlington, and beyond Arlington it stays isolated. Self-rescue skills are assumed here, not optional.

Launch

Threemile Canyon Park, an Army Corps of Engineers site a mile off I-84 down an easy gravel road, roughly halfway between Arlington and Boardman. A large gravel lot runs along the water with a boat ramp and dock; there is no groomed beach, just sagebrush, gravel and rocky shoreline. The kite launch itself is sketchy.The park doubles as a downwind takeout, and that takeout is full of boulders and hard to pick out from the water, so mark a landmark before you commit.

Space

Hazards riders report 13

sketchy kite launch
moderate-to-moderately-strong current
remote location
sagebrush
snakes, reported but unconfirmed
awkward kite launch
boulders along the shoreline and at the downwind takeout
moderate to moderately strong downstream current running against the wind
remote, with no rescue and no road access along long stretches of river
sagebrush over the whole site
swarming gnats and mosquitoes in warm months
boat and fishing traffic around the ramp
no shade, hot and exposed in summer

Rules & access

Free to use and free to camp (2025). Corps of Engineers land: pack in and pack out, no bins, no campfires, and the posted season runs 1 April to 31 October although the site is reachable year-round.

The maximum stay is given as 7 days in some 2025 documentation and 14 days in other 2025 documentation, so treat the shorter figure as binding until a sign says otherwise.

A treaty fishing access site of the same name exists on this stretch of the Columbia, reserved for the exclusive use of fishers from the CRITFC member tribes; check on the ground which lot and ramp you are on before rigging.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Rider tips

Pick a landmark on the bank before you launch. The takeout is boulder-strewn and close to invisible from the water.
Come as a pair. No road reaches the river between Blalock and Arlington, so swimming to shore does not end the problem.
Read the neighbouring Gorge sensors, not the Boardman land station: it sits away from the river and reads far lower than the corridor.
Carry all your water and take all your rubbish out. A hand pump and a vault toilet are the whole infrastructure.
Pack a screened shelter for warm evenings. The bugs are the reason people pack up early.
The 23-mile Blalock to Threemile downwinder is the classic use of this launch, and the shuttle is the hard part, so sort the second car before the wind fills.

Getting there

Airport

Pasco / Tri-Cities (PSC) is nearest at about 65 km, Pendleton (PDT) at about 69 km. Portland (PDX) is 226 km away and is where the flights actually are.

Route

Car, and effectively car only. Leave I-84 halfway between Arlington and Boardman and follow a mile of gravel down to the river; Boardman is 13 miles east.

Cost level

low

Staying

Free dispersed camping in the gravel lot, first come first served, room for perhaps 10-15 rigs, with a vault toilet and a hand water pump and nothing else: no running water, no bins, no shade. Train noise carries across the water at night. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all have strong coverage.Motels are in Boardman and Arlington; the nearest dump stations are Boardman, Pendleton or Le Page Park near Rufus.

No-wind days

Very little. Boardman, 13 miles east, has the nearest shops and services.

FAQ

Is Threemile Canyon suitable for beginners?

No, it fits intermediate to expert riders rather than beginners, since the local launch directory marks the kite launch here as sketchy.

What is the wind like?

The dominant direction is westerly Gorge pressure-gradient wind, on a river with moderate to moderately strong current.

Are there fees?

As of 2025, the local Gorge launch guide lists Threemile Canyon as free to use and free to camp.

Last updated: August 2026