Wauna Viewpoint, Oneonta Gorge, and Bridal Veil falls

Here is a 3 birds with one stone entry. All these hikes are short and not deserving of their own post yet. 

Oneonta Gorge
Oneonta Gorge is famous locally for being really neat. It is indeed really neat. It's also stupid popular and not worth it unless you hit it on a lonely weekday morning.

Oneonta Gorge is a slot canyon that is about 1/4th a mile long, with a hidden waterfall at the end, and you need a swimsuit to reach it. You park, stuff everything in plastic sealed bags high in your backpack, put on your watershoes and hit the action. You are effectively just wading up the creek through the gorge. The first obstacle is the logjam. You gotta climb over a massive pile of wet logs (unless you swim under them fearlessly). Then you wade into the good part of the canyon, go through a knee deep pool, then go through a waist-to-chest deep pool in ball shrivling cold water for 20 feet, then boom, you are at the hidden waterfall. Take pictures, go for a cold dip in the pool underneath it, then walk back.

It's a really, really cool place but it get so busy so fast that to really appreciate it you need to do it when everyone else is busy. Even then, you'll probably still have people there. The other downside is that the gorge is really only accessible for one or two months a year, July-early September, after things dry out. Otherwise the pools of water move too fast and go too deep to be safe. It's worth it though.

Wauna Viewpoint
Wauna Point is a cliff jut between Tanner and Eagle Creeks. The top itself is hikeable but tough, the easier option is Wauna Viewpoint. It's a smaller jut underneath the point on the power lines. You park at Eagle creek, walk across the bridge, climb gorge trail 400 to a junction, then go up some switchbacks to the spot. Sadly, when we did this hike, a landslide had blocked access to the final viewpoint and we only managed to get a view to the east. Hopefully the landslide gets fixed soon and the trail re-opens. We did get a good view of Table Mtn at least.

Table Mountain

Crazy dutch angle looking northwest

Panorama

Table

Bridal Veil Falls
Lastly, we have Bridal Veil. Bridal Veil is a nice little waterfall right off highway 30 slightly west of Angels rest. It takes 20 minutes to see everything. Park, go down a slight hill, over the creek, and bam, waterfall. Easy peasy.

Beacon Rock

There are a lot of icons in the gorge. Some you only recognize once you look them up, some that resonate with you the instant you see them, and then there's Beacon Rock. Beacon Rock is one thing everyone sees. Probably the only thing in the gorge more recognizable than Wind Mountain. 

Here is a quiz: can you find Beacon Rock in these pictures?

Where is it?

Can you find it?

IT'S HIDING!

Beacon Rock is an easy hike but absolutely worth your time. It'll take about an hour unless you take it slow. Someone built a trail all the way up to the top in the early 20th century. The hike up is at a very mild grade and is a engineering feat of concrete and stairs.

Halfway up

Terrible old camera pictures

I've hiked Beacon a couple of times because it's a great place to take newbies for a quick bite of the gorge. You hike up a hill, then you end up right on the side of the rock for half the hike. This is actually the best part of the entire hike.

From a small arch on the path

The Beacon Rock trail

Facing west

Lens flare heading west

Foolin around

Once you crest the west side of the rock, things get less interesting. You head up to the top and the top/east side just doesn't have nearly the view that the West side did. There is no reason to linger unless you really want to look east. This picture is the best view east you get, but this isn't from the top but a corner on the trail most of the way up.

Munra Point in the middle there

It's a nice hike for kids and families and newbies, and a great way to kill some time close to PDX, but for a more seasoned Gorge hiker like myself, Beacon Rock looks better from other mountains. Knowing it's 800 feet high is a great way to scale how far you've hiked when you are on the tougher hikes, and it always makes a great picture when you include the rock. 

Dry Creek Falls

A short hike on the PCT to a small intimate falls. Dry Creek falls is a small waterfall that doesn't get any real fanfare, but if you want to kill a few hours in a quiet place, it's a great spot. 

Accessed by the Bridge of the Gods trailhead in Cascade Locks, Dry Creek falls is mostly on the Pacific Crest Trail. Park at the trailhead, or the nearby bike path trailhead (We did, the trailhead proper is closed during winter when we went), then you walk up a small hill and cross under 84. You then walk up a road for a small bit before the PCT winds off into the woods.

The trail slowly climbs through the woods and passing under the powerlines. It's not a terribly remarkable trail. After a couple of miles you reach a junction with Dry Creek and a nice little bridge. Walk up a quarter mile to the right and you come to dry creek falls, a cute little waterfall shooting out from two big basalt column walls. There are the remains of an old piece of machinery here, and it's a great spot to just sit and chill for a while. The chances that you'll run into other people is slim, our entire trip was alone.

The view from the Cascade Locks trailhead

The Bridge over Dry Creek

Mural on the Bridge of the Gods support structure

Another view from the trailhead

Under the powerlines

Dry Creek falls all frozen over

Ice grass

Dry Creek Falls

ICE in late november

Multnomah - Wahkeena falls loop

A glorious beginner hike for those who want a great introduction to what the Columbia Gorge can offer.

Start at either Wahkeena or Multnomah, it doesn't matter much, although Wahkeena's trailhead is a little higher in elevation so starting at Multnomah would result in the final leg being downhill. Also, if you start at Multnomah, you escape most of the crowd early.

So start at the famous Multnomah falls. Climb up the 10 paved switchbacks during the mile to the top of the falls. It's crowded, it's steep, it's loud and you can hear the highway, but it must be done and you'd rather do it at the start. Funnily enough, the viewpoint at the top of the falls is terrible by gorge standards. You get a great view of the parking lot and a little bit of the river. Because Multnomah is stuck in a notch, you don't get any vistas to the east or west, just trees. It's not worth the effort to reach and I find it funny how popular it is.

The rest is worth it. You continue up Multnomah creek, climbing and passing waterfalls galore, big and small as you follow the creek and cliff edge in places. After a while and several falls, you reach a junction point with the Wahkeena loop. If you kept going up the creek you'd see more waterfalls and eventually reach Larch Mountain, but that's not for this trip. Take the right path towards Wahkeena. Now you'll be doing some slight climbing along the sides of the gorge hills, with the occasional expansive view. After a mile or two you hit the Wahkeena/Devils Rest/Vista Point junction. Up goes to Devils rest, and that uphill sucks. The Vista Point trail heads north and down, and cuts some distance off the hike, and is worth doing if you are tired or this is your second time through. You can instead take the Wahkeena trail straight, which begins to descend into Wahkeena canyon. You soon come to another junction, this one with the Angels rest trail, which I did on another day. This time you want to walk right, but if you go straight on the Angels rest trail for about 30 seconds you come across Wahkeena spring. On one side of the trail is just woods. On the other side a hefty creek appears from under the trail as if from nothing. It's not going to blow anyone's mind but it's a neat little curiosity. Take the short trip back to the junction and head down the Wahkeena trail.

Here things get scenic again. You follow Wahkeena creek and cross in front of the beautiful Fairy Falls.

Then you hit the best viewpoint of the trip, Lemmon's Viewpoint. It's still not incredible by Gorge Standards as the washington side you see isn't terribly interesting here, but it's more open than Multnomah's and still feels rewarding.

Then you have to descend down Wahkeena's switchbacks on the cliffside until you end up at Wahkeena Falls then take the trail to Multnomah back, where you can get food. It's not my favorite hike in the gorge, but it's a great way to start. It provides vistas and great waterfalls, plus a workout without being too harsh on you.

The Classic, Crowded Multnomah

Fairy Falls along Wahkeena creek

View from Lemmon's viewpoint

Another view of Fairy Falls

Cliff trail along Multnomah Creek

Waterfall on Multnomah Creek

Waterfall on Mult. Creek

Beautiful waterfalls

Multnomah during drier seasons