Lately, I've been waterfall-obsessed. Waterfalls have always been one of my favorite features of nature, but recently I find myself more interested in hiking to see falls than great sweeping views. The timing is appropriate as it's much easier to hike to lower-elevation falls than up high in the mountains during the wintertime.
So last weekend we took a mini waterfall tour of the Columbia River Gorge. So much of the Gorge was damaged in the tragedy that was the Eagle Creek Fire at the end of last year. Because of this, many of the roads and trails were closed, limiting our options. Luckily, there are so many waterfalls and trails along the Gorge that we were able to find some amazing ones that were open and safe.
We drove down from Seattle on Friday evening and stayed in a cute little hotel in Portland. On Saturday, after enjoying some coffee and avocado toast at our hotel cafe, we started out to Latourell Falls.
The trail was gorgeous, the fiddleheads starting to unfurl, the salmonberries flowering, the trillium beginning to pop out their colorful little petals.
We took the long way to the base of the falls - I kind of wish we would have started at the base and worked our way up to the upper falls because by the time we got down there was a crowd of people at the bottom. Still, it was beautiful and we got soaked by the mist, despite wearing our rain jackets (Seattleites - always prepared for rain!)
After Latourell, we headed to Bridal Veil Falls. This is a short hike - 2/3 mile round trip.
We journeyed on to the waterfall I've been waiting to see since I moved to the pacific northwest: Multnomah Falls.
Every time I see photos of this place it reminds me of Rivendell (can't you just see Legolas standing on that bridge, hair waving in the wind!?). Sadly, this was one of the trails that was damaged by the fire - one of the bridges along the way burned - so we were unable to climb up to the top. But the view from the bottom is spectacular - just be ready for crowds! This is a super popular tourist spot, and for a good reason.
We snapped a touristy selfie with the falls, and continued on our way! We drove over the Bridge of the Gods -- if you've seen Wild, you'll recognize this bridge!
An insta-friend recommended we grab lunch at Thunder Island Brewery and I'm so glad we took her advice! By this point in the day, it was sunny and gorgeous outside and we sat outside by the river eating sandwiches and sipping beer and petting other people's dogs - it was fabulous.
Now that we'd crossed the bridge, we were back in Washington and headed to our final hike of the day - Panther Creek Falls.
We definitely saved the best for last!! We drove into the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest and headed to the trail, which we were told was 0.2 miles in length. Little did we know, that was to the viewpoint and did not include the actual climb DOWN to the falls - you have to boulder down a rock wall to get down... but it was so worth it!
Panther Creek Falls is the most magical place I've ever been in my life! It's like walking into a dream. If it weren't so wet and muddy, I would love to camp at the base of these falls - falling asleep to the sound of rushing water and waking up to see the sun shining on the rivers of water flowing down the rocks.
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