It's been a couple of years since our last visit to Portland, Oregon to see Kent's family. While waiting for everyone to finish work and meet for pizza, we decided to explore some waterfalls we hadn't seen before. The three waterfalls pictured in this post are all located on the east side of Mt. Hood. Since we were on the west side we decided to make a counter clockwise loop around Oregon's highest peak (11,249 ft). We ended up at the town of Hood River and then traveled back for our get-together in Portland.
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As we headed up the west side of Mt. Hood, we were shrouded in mist and a light rain . . .
Maybe this wasn't such a great plan! |
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However, shortly after we began heading down the eastern side, the clouds disappeared
and we had a beautiful picture-perfect day |
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| Pacific Lupine |
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As we made our way north towards the Tamanawas Falls trailhead,
we took a side road that lead us to the old highway and Sahalie Falls |
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We were surprised that the old highway was still drivable
and even more surprised to find a benchmark embedded in the bridge! |
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| Both the bridge and the benchmark were in great shape! |
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After Sahalie Falls we backtracked to Mt. Hood Meadows where we took a short trail to Umbrella Falls
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| Umbrella Falls |
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| As we drove back to the main road this young fawn was crossing the blacktop |
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We knew the mother couldn't be too far away . . .
Sure enough she was hiding just off the side of the road, waiting for her youngster |
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| We have arrived! |
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| The trail crosses the East Fork of the Hood River and then follows it north for a mile |
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It then intersects with Cold Spring Creek . . .
After crossing another bridge the trail turns west following the stream for 1.5 miles to the Falls |
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| The trail follows Cold Spring Creek closely and provides a lot of photo ops along the way |
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| Almost there! |
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Tamanawas Falls
(110 ft high and 40 ft wide) |
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| We were surprised, that even from this distance, the spray from the Falls was misting around us |
We've visited Oregon many times and it seems we often end up doing hikes along the Columbia Gorge where we visit many of the different falls. However, if you want to do something a little bit different you might want to consider a trip to
Tamanawas Falls. We're not too sure there were any less people on the trail, but it allowed us to see an area we wouldn't normally visit. The hike was about 4.5 miles (r/t) with 700 ft elevation gain.
