Columbia River Gorge - Day 2 Part 1

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

This morning we got up about 7 am, had breakfast and left by just after 8 am.  We wanted to get to Multnoma Falls early before the parking lots got full.

On the way we stopped at Wahkeena Falls.

The water in this 242 ft falls does not fall straight to the ground.  It more flows down with short drops.  It's hard to see the top because the bushes and trees cover the view.

Next we came to Multnomah Falls and Visitor Center.

This is the Visitors Center with gift shop and restaurant.

Multnomah Falls is the highest waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge and the 2nd highest year-round waterfall in the U.S.  There are 2 tiers.  The upper falls is 542 ft and the lower falls is 69 ft.

This video hopefully shows the magnificence of Multnomah Falls.  Then we walked up to the bridge seen in the pictures.

This is looking down the 2nd part of the falls from the bridge.  Just awesome!!

This bridge crosses Multnomah Creek at the bottom of the falls.

These flowers were in front of the Visitors Center.

We are driving the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Highway.  It is the same road we drove yesterday. It is so beautiful!
 

Next we stopped at Oneonta Gorge. It is a unique cool mossy botanical area. This tunnel is the walkway to the trailhead. Taking the hike through the gorge is considered hazardous at this time, due to fallen trees and washed out areas.  We did not take the hike.

This is the inside of the tunnel. It is all wood.  It was beautifully crafted.

This looking up the canyon just before the tunnel.

This is looking at one of the canyon walls.  The cave did not look deep.  You could tell water dripped around the cave opening by the bright green moss.

The last waterfall we saw today was the Horsetail Falls.

 This 176 ft high fall really looks like a horse's tail, wider at the top and more narrow at the bottom.

This post of long enough now so I'm going to make the rest of the day Part 2.