My favorite waterfall in the gorge.
Most of the major gorge waterfalls are easy to find. Elowah feels different. It's not hard to find, but it seems like the public in general either ignores it, or simply doesn't know it's there. It's a shame, because it's probably one of the most impressive waterfalls in the entire gorge.
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| all 213 feet of Elowah |
Wakeena, Multnomah, Latourell, and Horsetail are all right off the old highway, but Elowah is tucked away in a small corner, past where highway 30 meets up with 84. You need to take a side road to get there, and I think that is why so many people miss it. It's also not visible from the parking lot. You need to walk about a mile in the woods with a mild hill in the middle to find it. Because it's just hidden enough, it's easy to be in solitude at Elowah and take in it's majesty alone.
You park at the Yeon trailhead off Frontage road by the tiny, tiny town of Dodson. The trail starts right off mostly level into the woods. Very shortly after you enter the woods, you pass the junction with Trail 400 and the route to Nesmith Point. I haven't done Nesmith point yet, but I'd like to. It looks hard, so I gotta get in better shape first.
It's about a mile to Elowah. You slowly climb about 300 feet to the halfway point. It's enough to raise the heart rate a little but not enough to make anyone in reasonable shape breathe heavy. At the top of the hill before you descend into the Elowah canyon there is another junction. This one is worth taking. It leads up several very easy switchbacks for another mile to the cliff overlooking the gorge/Elowah's notch. As you climb you pass over an old pipe that used to carry water to the bottom of the hill, to the person who owned this land before it got set aside. This person also carved out the hillside giving us a great view.
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| Hamilton and Table Mountains say hello |
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| The other side of the canyon/notch of Elowah |
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| The trail carved into the cliff |
You can kind of see Elowah from the top, but the view is somewhat obscured by trees. It's not the ideal vantage spot anyway, we'll get to that. Just a bit upstream above Elowah is Upper McCord Creek falls, a majestic two fall slide.
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| Upper McCord Creek at full volume. Late in season the left falls is dry. |
You can't get real close to Upper McCord because it's dangerous, the trail deadends right behind it looking out into the gorge.
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| Looking out above Upper McCord at Hardy Ridge |
It seems like following McCord Creek up further might be doable, but apparently it's just a rough bushwhack alternate path to Nesmith. So back down you go! You reach the junction again soon enough and begin the descent into Elowah's little canyon notch. After some switchbacks you reach the creek and are treated to my favorite waterfall ever, crashing onto some rocks and into a big pool.
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| The pool, you can swim in it during summer months |
You can hang out and picnic, scramble up the canyon wall a bit, or follow the trail across the bridge and up to a different vantage point on the east side of the canyon wall. This is the best far viewpoint in my opinion, sitting on a big rock overlooking the falls.
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| The vantage point |
If you follow the trail a little further, you come to an old picnic table that time forgot and a great view of Beacon Rock across the river.
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| A friend carved his first initial, my first initial, and my girlfriends first initial into the old table |
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| Beacon Rock from Gorge trail 400 near Elowah |
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| Beacon Rock, this was taken on thanksgiving |
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| Looking up at the canyon wall from the bottom |
The trail continues, but it's just trail 400 which parallels the highway and eventually meets up at Wachella and the Munra Point trail.
Elowah is an easy to get to quiet place known only to gorge enthusiasts, and the hike there keeps out the touristy masses that plague the Wakeena and Multnomah areas. It's not my favorite waterfall, but it's my favorite waterfall atmosphere. It's the kind of place that helps you fall in love with the gorge.
