Boy, Did We Gorge Ourselves Today!

But not on food!  It’s Wednesday.  It’s Portland.  It’s time for a day trip!  So we headed out to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.  And what a stunning scenic site it is.  It actually is an 80-mile drive from Portland to the town of Biggs.  However, we didn’t do all 80 miles.  We exited Highway 84 at Bridal Veil Falls and followed Highway 30 (the scenic highway) through to Dodson, at which point we turned around and headed home.  We were able to catch three of the seven waterfalls that line this meandering stretch of highway that tracks the Columbia River.

As I mentioned, we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls first.  The falls consists of two cascades in quick succession along angling rock faces dropping about 118 feet.  Here’s a bit of trivia about this fall … There is a post office in the nearby community of Bridal Veil.  Many couples have their wedding invitations shipped there in order to have the town's postmark applied to them.

This first shot was taken on our hike down to the falls (about .6 of a mile each way).  It is the creek into which Bridal Veil Falls empties.  We hiked down on the way to the falls and up on the way out!  We stopped three times on the way back up so we could take breathers and we made it just fine.

 

This shot of the falls is from the end of our hike, taken from a platform set up for viewing and photo ops.  This is a stunning set of falls in a lovely, picturesque, leafy-green setting.

Here’s a video of the falls and I apologize that I took it vertically and can’t turn it.  I guess you’ll have to just turn your head while you watch J.

 

The next falls on our drive was Wahkeena Falls.  The hike for this one was uphill first and then downhill on the way back.  On this hike (because it was only .2 of a mile each way) we took the dogs with us.  What a superb 242 foot fall this was and we think the dogs enjoyed the journey as well.  They sure made their mark a number of times on the way!  The first photo shows the fall from top to bottom, and the second photo shows just the lower portion of the fall as it winds its way down into a creek.

Not too far from Wahkeena is the MOST FAMOUS falls on this scenic byway, Multnomah Falls.  No hiking needed for this one, it is conveniently located roadside!  Plummeting 620 feet, Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States and receives nearly 2 million visitors each year. The falls drop in two major steps, split into an upper falls of 542 feet and a lower falls of 69 feet, with a gradual 9 foot drop in elevation between the two, so the total height of the waterfall is conventionally given as 620 feet. 

Multnomah Falls trivia:  On Labor Day in September 1995, a 400-ton boulder, loosened by erosion, fell 225 feet from the face of the waterfall into the upper cascade pool, above Benson Bridge. It caused a 70-foot splash of water and gravel to wash over the footbridge, causing minor injuries to twenty members of a wedding party that happened to be on the bridge posing for photos at the time.

I've included this first photo so you could get an idea of how many people there were roaming around this famous fall.  At this stop, there's a restaurant, the Forest Service has a kiosk you can stop at, a souvenir kiosk, a grab-and-go kiosk, and a very nice outdoor picnic/patio area that you can sit at and see the falls.  The second photo was taken closer up and you have a better look at that footbridge mentioned in the trivia above.  That's Gary's head in the lower right-hand corner of the photo.

Here's a video of Multnomah Falls and once again, sorry for the sideways viewing L

Finally, the last falls we stopped at to view were Horsetail Falls featuring a 176 foot plunge.  This one was also very easy to get to and could be seen from the roadside.  No need to take the dogs out and no need for us to hike around.  I sure liked that.  Here's Gary at the sign for Horsetail and he's sporting his new Tillamook Air Museum t-shirt.  What a dapper dude, don't you think?

 Looking at this fall, you can certainly see how it got its name!

Below is Gary, my tree hugging husband!  He just couldn’t help himself. Too many trees.  Too tempting.  As you can see from this photo, he secretly wants to be a real tree hugger, although I don’t think this secret revelation would hold up in a court of law!

Finally, on the way home, we stopped at a highway viewpoint and were able to get a couple of shots of the Columbia River.  This river is so wide it’s amazing.  The river divides Oregon and Washington about 80% of their borders.  The dividing line runs down the middle of the river.  There are also a number of islands in the Columbia, the largest being Government Island.   Some of the islands “belong to” the state of Washington and some “belong to” the state of Oregon (Government is an Oregon island).

 

To end this perfect day, we had a perfect sunset.  This photo was taken from our RV site at the Columbia River RV Park.  Lovely, wouldn't you say?



 

Psalms 65:8 … They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs; You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.