Waterfalls

[mikej]

One thing Western Oregon is known for, is the number of waterfalls we have along the Cascade Mountains. Along the Columbia River Gorge between Portland and Hood River to the East is one stretch of waterfalls. Some are right along side the road and some you have to hike back into a few miles... with the first half mile or so being very steep trails. Then it levels off for a bit before the really steep trails start.

This is one of the falls up Eagle Creek a couple of miles called Punch Bowl. This is one of the icon falls that you see a lot in brochures about waterfalls in this area... but when you see it in brochures you won't see the log in front of it. Most of the falls have logs in front of them now, which is very irratating to those of us taking pictures. A few years ago we had massive rain and flooding out of the streams running to the Columbia River and it washed a lot of tember down... big tember. The Park service so far has decided to leave them in place since it is part of nature... but more than a few of us have talked about either hiring some trained Beavers (Oregon is home to the Beavers too) to go remove them "naturally" or else get one of the indian tribes to do some more rain dances and try to get a flood again that will wash them out. Either that or we wait till the logs rot and fall on their own.

Punch Bowl Falls... 10D, 24-70 2.8L, polorizer, tripod. ISO 100, f16 at 4 seconds.




The next shot is of Methlako Falls, which is about a half mile from Punch Bowl Falls. You can't really get to this falls, so I had to settle for the small overlook, with the limitations of not really having a clear shot of it. I should have taken a picture of the cliff that was just to my right that looked down several hundred feet to the creek below. If I moved one way, the falls looked like it was coming out of the tree that is near where it comes out of the rocks. If I moved the other way, the limbs from the trees blocked it. In addition, the mist around the falls was thick enough that my AF had a hard time picking the right focus. And I have a problem that when I stop walking my glasses really fog up and sweat got into my eyes. So I wasn't able to manually focus any better. I know, life's rough.

About the same camera setup as above.



The other thing the Gorge is known for is the high winds that either blow East or West. Highway 84 is sometimes shut down for days during some of these windy periods because it's too dangorous to drive along... espcially in the winter when there is some ice on the road. This was taken last fall during one of the windy periods. I didn't find out till I got home that the wind had substained speeds of about 50 mph and gusts even higher. I do know that I never got out of my car to take pictures that day. I took this out my car window on the downwind side so my van was blocking the wind. This waterfall disappears in the summer, but during the rainy and snowy period a number of them can be seen just East of Portland. Here the wind is blowing the water UP and it never hit the ground about 300 feet below.





That's a few of the waterfalls in this area.

Mike

[RobAmy]

Mike some beutiful waterfalls, thanks for sharing

[Gods Eyes]

The first two are my favorites, they look something you found in a dream.

Emily, 11

PEACE OUT

[mikej]

Thanks, Rob and Emily. These are only a couple of the many waterfalls we have in our area around here... of course we have a lot of waterfalls because of all the rain and snow we usually get 9 months of the year.

Thanks

Mike

[wnwest]

Excellent.

I live across the river from Multnomah Falls.

[mikej]

Wnwest, then you know about the waterfalls along the Gorge. Do you get over there and photograph them any? When I do my Gorge crawl I usually drive the Washington side on Hwy 14 because I think it's a prettier drive up to Hood River than taking I84 on the Oregon side. Plus it puts me closer to the river and the kiteboarders and wind surfers, which I love taking pictures of.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

[wnwest]

Originally Posted by Mike Jordan

Wnwest, then you know about the waterfalls along the Gorge.* Do you get over there and photograph them any?* When I do my Gorge crawl I usually drive the Washington side on Hwy 14 because I think it's a prettier drive up to Hood River than taking I84 on the Oregon side. Plus it puts me closer to the river and the kiteboarders and wind surfers, which I love taking pictures of.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

Lived in the Gorge since March 1990, lived in Troutdale for 18 years prior, Portland before Troutdale, unable right now to drive or taking photos(will be someday again), highway 14 is nice in many areas, I have an Aunt that lives in Hood River, summer is the busiest time of year from Wind Surfers.

Add, currently live 15 miles east of Washougal.

[ellette]

Great pictures. Don't think I've ever seen the water blowing up quite that much. Do you have any pictures of Multnomah when it froze?

My favourite waterfall has always been Lower Oneonta. There was one campsite that I went to once, can't remember what the name was...Opal Creek maybe? Anyway, we hiked past several falls, under one, and then ended up camping (about 7 miles from the trailhead) quite near yet another fall. Most of them were quite small...5 feet tall or so on this river, but still absolutely beautiful. Really, Oregon has about the widest variety of scenery in one state that you can find anywhere in the US.

Sara

[mikej]

Sara, I don't have one of when Multnomah has frozen but I have one somewhere of Horsetail Falls when it was frozen back in the 50's when I first started taking pictures with a Kodak Browie camera. I haven't been able to find the frozen picture or the ones where the snow in Portland that winter was up to the eves of our garage. I do have one taken that summer of Horsetail Falls in my photo album from when I was a kid. I took the same shot as close to the same place this summer and compared the two. In the 45 some years between the two shots, you can see how the water has worn into the rocks a bit. They didn't have the rock wall around it back then either, it was just a waterfall coming down beside the road. But I remember when the waterfalls were all one big sheet of ice coming down the side of the rock face along the Gorge road.

Mike

[ellette]

Oh, I'd love to see those pictures, that would be fascinating.

I wasn't here for any snow that deep (was born in the 70's). I remember having over a foot of snow one year when I was young, but I remember many more ice storms than we get now too.

Oh, and since we are talking about interesting weather. I was working downtown on the river when we had that big flood several years back. Had to be evacuated and then went home to watch logs bumping into the building ABOVE where I worked! When they told us we had to leave one of the guys I work with went outside with me and we stood there for a few minutes watching the water and you could see it get higher and higher, it was amazing.

Oregon may essentially have boring weather summed up by either "raining" or "not raining", but it does like to throw some curve balls at us occasionally.

Sara

[mikej]

I remember the drought and long 100+ days of 1996 and the flooding we had that winter very well. I had worked at John's Landing until a couple of months before the flood and the people there said that our control center had water over the raised computer flooring. Portland came within about a foot of flooding downtown. If they hadn't put up the extended sea walls they would have flooded for sure. Even the other rivers were way over their banks. The Tualatin River flooded a lot of farm land along the back roads from Hillsboro to Wilsonville. OMSI had just moved to their new location on the Willamette River and they were pumping like crazy to keep the water out of the lower levels. It was an interesting time in the Portland area and along the Columbia River. We are probably due for another one like that too. We've come close to having the right conditions... lots of snow, the warm temps and lots of rain. That's what did it back then.

Mike

[ellette]

I know, I keep expecting it to happen again. Where I was working was on the waterfront fairly close to the train station but closer in town. There are some nice condos there that got flooded. I'm in Sherwood now and not likely to get flooded anytime soon, but I remember the water goign in our neighbor's garage because the drains couldn't handle all the water and came up over the curbs...and this was in NE Portland, well away from the river. Tillamook lost lots and lots of cows that year because of the flooding. Poor things.

Sara

Originally Posted by Mike Jordan

I remember the drought and long 100+ days of 1996 and the flooding we had that winter very well.* I had worked at John's Landing until a couple of months before the flood and the people there said that our control center had water over the raised computer flooring.* Portland came within about a foot of flooding downtown. If they hadn't put up the extended sea walls they would have flooded for sure.* Even the other rivers were way over their banks.* The Tualatin River flooded a lot of farm land along the back roads from Hillsboro to Wilsonville. OMSI had just moved to their new location on the Willamette River and they were pumping like crazy to keep the water out of the lower levels. It was an interesting time in the Portland area and along the Columbia River.* We are probably due for another one like that too. We've come close to having the right conditions... lots of snow, the warm temps and lots of rain.* That's what did it back then.

Mike

[Kevin Barrett]

Mike,

Looks like western Oregon would be a nice place to visit. The last two images "mess with my mind," I have never seen
a phenomena such as this. Great captures.

Kevin

[mikej]

Thanks Kevin. Yes, there are some wonderful scenic places in this area. And then there is the coast not far from here that has it own unique scenic areas. I wish I could get out and shoot it more and also do it justice.

It was pretty amazing watching the water get blown back up. I was parked in my van and shooting out the drivers window. I had the body of the van blocking most of the wind but it was still rocking the van when the gusts hit. I had been up at Vista House overlooking the Columbia just before finding this and I didn't even get out of the van as the gusts were probably hitting 70 mph up there and just opening the door would have been a challenge, not to mention trying to take any pictures.

Thanks

Mike