Waterfalls!

 Leaving our little forest hideaway on the lake, we headed down to the wonder of nature that is the Columbia Gorge. The Columbia River flows over 1,200 miles from its source in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, through Oregon and Washington to the Pacific Ocean. At least six major rivers merge into it along the way. Remarkably, it is one of the only rivers in the world that cuts through a major mountain range.  The Columbia River Gorge is 80 miles long and up to  4,000 feet deep in places. It is a spectacular and beautiful recreation area and we were excited to be revisiting it after a nine year absence.

The best way to explore the gorge is along Hwy 35, the historic scenic byway. Completed in 1922, it was the first scenic byway built in the U.S.  Much of it was replaced by U.S. Highway 84 in the 50s, but sections remain, including some of the original tunnels, like the Mitchel Point tunnel recently renovated.

The tunnel  has several ¨windows¨ to view the river

Viewpoint along the tunnel route

Exploring the tunnel is a fun, easy hike. Kids would love it.

The highlight of the gorge is the collection of waterfalls that pour off the mountains into the side streams flowing into the river. They are as varied as they are beautiful and we spent much of two weeks hiking and exploring the area.

Horesetail Falls and Ponytail Falls

Horsetail Falls is just steps from the old scenic highway

View of the Columbia  River from the trail to Ponytail Falls

Ponytail Falls flows over a deep cave and the trail goes right behind it!

Looking east up the gorge

Oneonta Trail and Triple Falls

This was a very fun and a bit challenging hike past upper and lower Oneonta Falls (not very spectacular from the trail) up to  Triple Falls.  As with most gorge trails, it was steep with great views.

This bald eagle flew off his branch just as I took his picture

Oneonta Falls

Signs of the 2020 gorge fire are apparent

First view of Triple Falls

The falls on this hike were not spectacular, but Triple Falls was a wonderful place to have lunch and dip  our feet in the cold water!

Latourelle Falls

This beautiful falls is accessible on a very short hike down below one of the old original bridges from the scenic byway. 

Shepperd´s Dell Falls

This little falls is easy to  miss as it's not marked on the road, but it was a pleasant short stroll to a lovely glade on the creek.

Bridal Veil Falls

Multnoma Falls

The highest (and most famous and popular) of the gorge waterfalls, Multnoma Falls is spectacularly beautiful,s but we did not visit it this trip. Here is a photo I took in 2016 that I don´t think I could improve upon:

On one of our last days in the gorge, we attempted a hike that turned out to be extremely steep and treacherous, so much so that Lynnae stopped about 300 feet from the top. I couldn´t bring myself to do the last 50 feet or so up a narrow and steep ridge that had spectacular views but was way too exposed for me to feel secure. (This turned out to be really ironic given subsequent events that I´ll cover below.)

It was a VERY steep trail!

Navigating loose rocks on a steep slope 1,000 feet above the river

The views were tremendous, though!

We spent a few days at a bluegrass music festival while in the gorge then headed south to the Mt. Hood area where we were excited to explore some great hikes.  Our first hike was a beautiful stroll along a rushing creek to a very pretty waterfall called Little Zigzag Falls.  This proved to be a fateful choice when almost at the end of the return walk, Lynnae slipped and fell off the trail and broke her left wrist pretty badly.  This was almost two weeks ago and we have been dealing with the fallout from that accident since then.  She has surgery scheduled on that wrist on August 13 and we have modified our travel plans to allow for that procedure and follow-up appointments. We are not changing our itinerary much and still plan to be on the Oregon coast for the last half of August and all of September so stay tuned as the adventures continue!

Enjoy Little Zigzag Creek: