Day 2 in Portland

Bridal Veil Falls

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Day 2 in Portland

Today was a waterfall day. We decided to visit some of the famous waterfalls in Columbia Gorge. Our travels took us onto the Historic Colombia River Highway, only to find it closed about 2 miles from the first waterfall. Instead of turning around, we pressed on to a tiny dirt road called Alex Barr road. On the Iphone it looks like a normal road, but we found it to be a one way dirt track that hugged the mountainside down into the valley, dropping about 800 hundred feet. There were actually some homes alongside this road. Imagine commuting to Portland every day and coming home to this! The downside is that I don’t think they could get out if it was raining…

After reconnecting with the Colombia River Highway, we went to Bridal Veil Falls. The trail to this falls is pretty much downhill the whole way. When we arrived at the falls, the sunlight was highlighting the water, turning it bright white, just like a veil. During the heyday of the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway, there was a logging operation situated on the west flanks of Larch Mountain. Bridal Veil Creek was utilized as a method of moving the logs downstream, in many places, with the assistance of a flume.

After hiking the mile uphill back to the truck, we moved onto the next waterfall, Wahkeena Falls. This water fall, while visible from the road, is best seen by following the uphill trail about 2/3rds of a mile. The trail leads you directly in front of the waterfall, and you could, if you wanted to, walk underneath it for a lovely cold shower (though it is quite slippery). The wind sends spray flying in all directions, cooling the air in the vicinity by 10 degrees or more.

The absolute ferocity of the waterfall is astounding. The water seems to be penetrating your skin, it is so cold. The sound of the water is a never-ending roar that you can hear down the mountain as you hike toward it. But most of all, the beauty of the falls is transfixing. It tumbles off the cliff 240 feet above your head, arching gracefully to the rocks only 20 feet away from your feet.

I climbed up one side to try to get a better view. The results were not that impressive, but I managed to get pretty soaked! We then went to the most famous of waterfalls in the area, Multnomah Falls. This is the fourth largest continuous running waterfalls in the US. It falls a total of 620 feet in two tiers. The sight of this waterfall is absolutely stunning. I can’t put into words how high 620 feet is. It’s really, really, really, really high. We sat on a bench and watched the fall for awhile. I like to watch a particular patch of water fall from the top, all the way down to its splash landing. It takes about 6 seconds or so every time.

Wahkeena Falls

There were quite a few tourists there, so we decided to forgo the hike up to the bridge that crosses in between the two tiers and head back to Portland. Once we were done fighting traffic into the city and had parked the truck, we walked down to food truck row and sampled 2 different food trucks. The first was Mexican food from the Yucatan Peninsula, totally different than the Baja or Sonora food I’m used to. He actually makes the tortillas with black beans baked inside of them! The other food truck we ate at served bacon wrapped corn dogs. Of course they were good!! We ended our meal by walking to Tartberry, a self serve frozen yogurt shop, similar to ZoYo in Phoenix.

While walking back to the hotel, we saw an advertisement for glow in the dark, 3D miniature golf, and you know we can’t pass that up!! The paint on the walls actually glowed and when we put the 3D glasses on, looked like it was coming out of the wall! It made depth perception a bit difficult, but was really fun!