Frozen Waterfalls

So it's been a cold and busy couple of months and I haven't had time to get out much, but we found ourselves with a free Friday afternoon to start the new year so we decided to do a hike and go into the gorge since we hadn't been there for a while. Since it had been 30 degrees or lower for a week, I anticipated some frozen waterfalls. Last time we went out this time of year (to dry creek falls) we were treated to a nice frozen waterfall, so I was hoping we'd at least get something similar if we went to some other waterfalls. I was rewarded for my hunch.

The plan was to go to Triple falls. We'd only done that hike once, and that trail (if you start at horsetail falls) take you past 4 waterfalls so we'd have 4 chances to see some frozen fun. We realized this was absolutely going to happen when we took a quick stop at Multnomah falls, because Multnomah was frozen already.

When we got to horsetail falls, the sight was even better. The whole waterfall basin was frozen, the mist from the waterfall had added inches of ice to everything it touched. This was going to be good. We took some photos and headed up the trail to Ponytail falls.

Ponytail falls wasn't quite as frozen, but there were lots of icicles hanging down from the cliff overhang. The mist from the falls however had completely frozen the left side of the trail and a short section past the falls was a sheet of ice, with a long slide down into the freezing water. You can see it in the wideshot image below, behind the falls. That white stretch was inch thick ice.

I didn't particularly want to climb it but Keeley was already halfway up, crawling on her hands and knees up the ice. Since we weren't going to be forced to come home this way home due to the other trails, up I climbed. It took 10 minutes to get about 30 feet over the frozen section, and much relief was to be had. We'd go to triple falls and walk home on the Oneonta trail to avoid coming back across the ice. We made it to the bridge, climbed another small section of ice, and headed past the junction up towards Triple falls. Sadly, it was not to be, a landslide had taken out the trail shortly past the junction and we'd already endangered out lives once so we turned around. Went back via the Oneonta trailhead with the slight overlooking Archer Mountain, walked along the highway to our car with only 3 miles under our belt.

Archer Mountain from the Oneonta trail

Gorge

We didn't want to end our day so early, so I looked up something I wanted to see but never had a reason to visit by itself. Oxbow regional park. It's a small, tucked away valley park along a couple of big bends in the Sandy river just outside Troutdale near the Sandy river's confluence with the Columbia. It's quiet, and it's mostly a picnic park and in January it was empty. We just walked around for a bit and hung out at the river, then drove home. All in all, a good winter day. We've resolved to go on more winter hikes this year, so hopefully I can keep updating with our travels.

A bird chillin on an island in the Sandy

The Sandy River

Neat sand plateau