Lighthouses-and-other-travels: Columbia River Gorge

When we left Vista House, I had wanted to drive up to Larch Mountain. From the highpoint, five Cascade Mountains would be visible. However the road was still closed due to snow. Then we set off to see the waterfalls along the Historic Columbia River Highway. The first on our list would have been Latourell Falls but the trail was closed. It seems there had been a very bad ice storm during the winter and that trail was unsafe due to storm damage. We pushed onward to Bridal Veil Falls. The trail was open and it was a dandy, loose gravel with a continuous downgrade. I hoped this waterfall was worth it as the return hike was all uphill. The following picture is representative of the entire trail.

Following are two pictures of the Bridal Veil Falls.

We reciprocated with another couple and took each other pictures at the overlook to the base of the falls. Definitely worth the hike.

Waukeena Falls was the next falls that we encountered. I liked this one, no hike. The picture was taken from the scenic pull off.

I did cross the street and followed the stream from the falls and took this picture.

Multnomah Falls was the one falls that everyone told me was a "must see". My first picture tries to give the viewer a sense of the height from which the water falls. This first picture does not show that mid way the water drops onto a ledge before continuing to the base.

The following picture gives a better view of the water dropping off the ledge. Note the viewing bridge in this picture. Years ago a huge bolder dropped down landing in the pool sending a massive gush of water up and covering this bridge. Several viewers were badly hurt.

I have a cranky knee and I no longer do stairs easily. I was happy to see that a winding ramp had been built to allow wheel chair access to this bridge. Again we found a nice couple to take our picture. From the picture you see that I was quite comfortable in the cooler weather and Carol was wearing her sweatshirt.