Columbia River Gorge

In the morning, we had breakfast at the Cascade Dining Room. It was not complimentary, we had to pay, but it was probably one of the best breakfast buffets I’ve ever had. The make-your-own Belgian waffles with all sorts of fruity toppings and whipped cream were amazing. I had one and it was so good, I had to go back for another. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and made our way to the Columbia River Gorge. Leaving the hotel, we saw a couple of very nice roadside waterfalls on Timberline Drive before reaching US-26. I’m sure the recent rain made these more impressive than usual. From US-26, we took OR-35 north towards Hood River. Although it had still been raining when we left the lodge, the weather was nice once we got down a bit in elevation. Near Hood River, we actually had much better views of Mount Hood and we could also see Mount Adams across the river in Washington State. In Hood River, we got on I-84 west took exit 37 to get on the Historic Columbia River Highway. Our first stop was John B. Yeon State Scenic Corridor at the east end of the gorge. Here was the trailhead for our first waterfall – Elowah Falls. The trail to the falls is just under a mile through a beautiful forest.

The vegetation was so dense, it seemed like hiking through a rainforest, albeit with pleasant temperatures and humidity. The trail gradually rises up to a ridge, and then descends via switchbacks down to McCord Creek near the base of the waterfall.

Sandy saw a couple smaller cascades and asked if this was a “baby waterfall”. I didn’t think so and we continued on the waterfall. At over 200 feet, it is anything but a baby. The water flows over beautiful cliffs colored a bridge-yellow green from lichen and down a narrow freefall of 213 feet, with a nice foot bridge crossing over the base.

We stopped for a while and took some pictures, but couldn’t spend too much time as there were many more to go. McCord Falls, just upstream of Elowah, is also here, but it would be another couple of miles to view the falls, so we had to pass on this one.  Leaving John B. Yeon and heading west on the highway, we entered Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and soon were at the stop for our next waterfalls. We parked at the lot for Horsetail Falls, which can easily be seen from the road.

This 200-foot waterfall is absolutely beautiful, but the area can get crowded due its ease of viewing. It is immediately clear where the waterfall got its name as the water takes the shape of horse’s tail is plunges down the cliff. While most people are content to stop and see Horsetail, I knew there were more waterfalls in the area, so we hiked up the Horsetail Falls Trail (438) a short ways up to Gorge Trail (400). It was a little steep getting up there, but the scenery was amazing. We found a tree with a giant hole in the base, big enough for Sandy to crawl into. And occasional breaks in the foliage allowed wonderful views of the Columbia River Gorge from the trail.

Shortly, we made it to Ponytail Falls, also called Upper Horsetail Falls.

Although this waterfall is much smaller than the one just downstream of it, it’s in a great setting.

The water plunges down from an overhang and the trail leads under the falls through a grotto allowing me to get some pictures looking out from behind the waterfall.

Continuing on for about a mile, we came to an old bridge at Middle Oneonta Falls. This is a smaller waterfall on Oneonta Creek.

We had initially planned on continuing and hiking up to Triple Falls, but we decided to turn back as we just had too many waterfalls to do in one day. On the way back, we saw an enormous slug on the trail. At first I thought that someone failed to clean up after their dog, until I realized it was moving and had antennae. We also stopped again at Ponytail Falls and climbed around on the rocks at the base, trying to find a spot to photograph the entire waterfall, including the upper portion above the cliff, but we couldn’t find one.

Back at the car, I stopped for just a moment to enjoy Horsetail Falls once more and then we continued on, stopping at Oneonta Gorge.

We hiked a little bit into the very narrow gorge and saw some people coming back from the waterfalls that are deeper in.

They were soaked and had to wade chest deep to get to the waterfalls. I thought that given the dry conditions it might be easier to get through the gorge, but no such luck. We weren’t prepared to get that wet, so we just headed back to the car.  Our next stop was Multnomah Falls. With two drops totaling more than 600 feet, this waterfall is amazing.

Perhaps the hardest part of photographing it is getting far enough away to see the entire thing. Unfortunately, with its fame and ease of access, the area around the falls was incredibly crowded. We stopped for pictures at the lower viewing area to see both the lower and upper drops and then while Sandy got something to eat, I ran up to the Benson Bridge and got a few more pictures before continuing on.

Next, we headed to Wahkeena Falls, a Yakima Indian word meaning most beautiful. It was short hike up to the waterfall, which was indeed very beautiful and had a very interesting shape, resembling a necktie.

In all, the waterfall drops quite a big height through a series of cascades and horsetail-drops, but like many of the waterfalls here, it was not possible to get the entire thing in one shot.

We continued on to Bridal Veil Falls State Scenic Viewpoint. A short hike down from the parking area leads to great views of this 120-foot waterfall that is actually just under the Historic Columbia River Highway.

At certain angles, we could see the bridge just over the waterfall, but there is no safe way to see the it from the highway as the road is narrow with no sidewalks. The waterfall has two tiers and the trail ends with a nice wooden overlook.

There is also a short spur that leads to the base of the falls with an enormous rock right at edge of the basin.

When we were done here, we continued on to Shepperd’s Dell State Natural Area. This was probably the least impressive waterfall of the day, but worth the stop. The waterfall itself has a very interesting hourglass shape.

From the parking area, there is a very short trail that provides views of the waterfall. It is more a series of cascades, but viewing them is difficult due to vegetation in the way. Like Bridal Veil Falls, Shepperd’s Dell runs right under the highway, and the bridge over the canyon was very pretty.

This was planned to be our last waterfall of the day and we continued west on the highway as we made our way to Astoria.  But shortly past Shepperd’s Dell, we saw a sign for Guy W. Talbot State Park and from the road we could see a huge waterfall. No way we couldn’t stop at this one, so we parked and made the short hike over to see Latourell Falls.

This huge 250-foot waterfall plunges over beautiful basalt cliffs that have bright patches of yellow lichen adorning the cliff face. And we pretty much had this waterfall to ourselves. At first, we thought we were the only ones here, until we saw a guy in the water under the bridge taking photos. By stopping at this last waterfall, we managed to hit nine in one day! Not bad for a day’s work. We got back in the car just as a tour bus was pulling in and I was glad we had missed the crowd. We went a short ways further and made one more stop, although not for a waterfall. We pulled into Vista House at Crown Point State Scenic Corridor.

From here, we had wonderful views up and down the Columbia River Gorge, particularly by heading up to the balcony on the upper floor of Vista House.

The views from here were fantastic and it was great to see gorge from a good overlook as most of the time we spent here was in dense forest hunting for waterfalls and not seeing much else.

When we were done here, we got back on I-85 towards Portland and took I-205 to I-5 in Washington State. Leaving Oregon, I saw a sign saying “come back soon” and thought to myself, we should be back in less than an hour! In the town of Longview, we crossed back into Oregon and took US-30 to Astoria. We checked into our hotel for the night, Hotel Elliott in downtown Astoria. It was pretty nice place, although we didn’t stay for long. Sandy loved the heated stone floor in the bathroom to keep her feet warm after taking a bath. Once we checked into the hotel, we walked to Plaza Jalisco for Mexican for dinner and then headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.