Columbia River Gorge

August long weekend was spent exploring a couple of the scenic spots around Oregon. After doing a bit of research, I quickly realized there are about a billion natural phenomenons worth checking out. I only had one weekend though, not a whole month, so I restricted myself to the Columbia River Gorge and Canon Beach. I took ALOT of photos, so we'll start with just the Gorge photos and leave Canon Beach for another post.

If you park near Multnomah Falls, you can venture into the woods along a series of trails that take you to a  number of beautiful waterfalls. I didn't want to risk wrecking my DSLR so I left it behind and only took photos with my little water camera. Consequently, the photos are pretty low-fi and really don't do any of the locations justice, but I wanted to share them anyway.

Here is a summary of the six waterfalls I visited:

Bridal Veil Falls was found after an easy hike through the woods. It would have been a really good place to swim if it wasn't our first stop of the day. Multnomah Falls was absolutly stunning, but completely overrun with tourists. Parking in this area was terrible and it took us awhile to find a space on the shoulder of the road where we felt comfortable leaving the car. The trail labels were confusing too, so we picked one at random and ended up at Triple Falls. We took a swim here to recover from the heat of the day in the freezing-cold stream that flowed down to the falls.

On our way back, we took an alternate trail that led under Ponytail Falls. This one was probably  my favourite because you could walk under the waterfall, but also it ran off into a perfectly round pool of water. So picturesque! The trail ended back at the road with Horsetail Falls and Oneonta Gorge.

The narrow Oneonta Gorge was what I had been most looking forward to. It involved climbing over a wall of logs and wading through pools of water while walled in by cliffs on either side. It ended at the Oneonta falls and another perfect swimming hole. It was both strange and beautiful and adventurous. 

My tank is from my favourite local swimwear line Nettles Tale.