July 22…. It rains and it pours

We moved to the Columbia Gorge, east of Portland OR, on Sunday. Not so much what I’d call a “gorge”, it’s a huge broad valley and expanse of river flowing slowly to the west, though there are tall sharp cliffs on both sides.

Sunday night we had the first rain we’ve seen in months. The last time it rained on us was in May as we arrived in Provo. This rain was very civilized, it didn’t start till after dark and was done by morning. I just had to duck outside at 2am to put some chairs under cover. 😞

After arrival Sunday, we drove a couple miles down the road to see Horsetail Falls, a very pretty waterfall, right next to the road.

On Monday, we hiked a trail right out of our campground. The Gorge #400 Trail runs along the cliffs above us, and there’s a connector trail right here. VERY steep up the hill, but not bad at all once we got to the main trail. A mile and a half down, we hit a side trail off to Ponytail Falls, which is the upper falls above Horsetail. I think I like Ponytail even better… the trail lead right down behind the falls and we could completely circle the pool at the base of the falls.

And today… another waterfall. This time, a very famous one, Multnomah Falls. It’s been a tourist attraction all the way back to Lewis and Clark’s journey and the Oregon Trail days, into the 1900’s (1915) when the lodge and observation bridge were built, to recent years when visitor numbers swelled to the point a special exit and parking lot had to be built off the interstate highway.

To give some perspective, the two falls that make it up are BIG. The lower falls is almost 70 feet, and the upper drops over 500 feet straight down!

We hiked up to the observation bridge.

And then made the decision to go the rest of the way to the top. 500+ vertical feet in just over a mile of trail. That’s kinda steep, eleven switchbacks in all, looking out over the Columbia River the whole way.

FINALLY, we made it to the top of the falls. A tremendous view of the river. A wonderful feeling of accomplishment. A disappointing view of the falls itself. 😢

The viewing platform was “close” to the edge, but not quite close enough to look straight down. We could see the water start the plunge, and we could see the bridge at the bottom, but not so much of the drop.

In all, Susy tells me there are something like 700 significant waterfalls in this Columbia River Gorge area. I’m hoping we can stop short of seeing all of them. Maybe only a hundred or so. 😎