Bookend falls don’t say enough

Friday was my 56th birthday and I asked Pedro to plan all of it and not tell me anything. I promised to happily go along with anything we did, near or far, big or small. Heck, I would have been thrilled if he cooked me dinner at home (Pedro is a great cook) as my birthday gift. But you know him from my blog enough to know that he did much better than that! Though I had no idea what was coming next, the first thing he said to do was pack an overnight bag, and dress for the day in hiking clothes, but bring a change for afterward.

The trail we hiked is called “Wahkeena Falls to Multnomah Falls Loop.” Those two falls are bangers, everyone agrees. But the trail offers another dozen or so falls, so unimpressive by comparison that most are not even named. That’s how spoiled we are in the Columbia Gorge with our waterfalls.

We parked half a mile from the famous Multnomah Falls to both avoid congestion and to avoid the parking fee that now plagues us. But also because Pedro wanted to repeat a hike we did over four years ago that we both enjoyed.

Wahkeena Falls Trail (and weather)

On our previous hike back in 2021, we had been told the loop was partially closed due to the 2017 fire, but serendipitously we had arrived on the first weekend it was opened again. This time we knew it would be open all the way through, so off we went. The one thing we carelessly did not consider was the state of a trail in the middle of winter, compared to a trail at the end of the dry season. (translation: a mess vs. cleaned up) So, we had to climb over and under trees that had fallen down, and had to carefully pick our way over boulders and through mud slides. Trail crews have been up there and have made sure it is passable for people with tenacity. But the rest should stay home till it gets more cleaned up in the Spring.

Outdoorsy people around here actually recommend waterfall hikes in the winter because there is so much rain, the volume of water is tremendous! And places that have no falls in summer, have them in winter. It’s a wet, green wonderland.

It was winter, so our views were more open than in months with more plants and leaves. This changed the atmosphere, and made it feel like something of a new trail, but we kept surprising ourselves at remembering so many things from our first hike here together. “Oh! This was the place where the wind was making the trees crack. Remember how scary that was?” For example.

At the highest point of the loop, we found a little bit of fresh snow. We had been hoping for more than this, but any snow would do. Our winter in Portland has been especially mild and wet, which is both good and bad. While we do not lament living in a place where snow is rare, we both still do love an occasional snowy outing. We scooped up the snow in our hands and pressed it to our faces in a snow bathing ritual to honor the moment. (Yes, we are silly)

Eventually, we got to some more big falls that we knew signaled we were approaching the end of the trail.

At Ecola Falls, hikers can hear the massive crash of water and see the stomach-churning drop, but be advised not to seek a good photo. It is not easily found without scrambling down the bank into the creek. One person at least was found at the bottom of the 55 foot (16.7 m) drop in 2013, and I could understand the temptation to try and get a photo of this impressive falls.

There had been people along the trail our entire route, which did come as some surprise, since it was midday on Friday. That made it tricky for both of us, who needed to hide behind a tree at some point, and thus had to time our stop between groups of people. But when we reached the side trail that leads to the top of Multnomah Falls, the population on the trail surged dramatically. This is pretty common because the hike is only one mile for these people coming from the other direction. Multnomah Falls has approximately TWO MILLION visitors a year. Despite that, and despite the new parking fees, I tell all visitors that it is still worth a look. It is, for sure.

From the overlook, it is one mile of switchbacks down to the bottom of the 620 foot (189 m) falls.

The official trail length is 5.5 miles, but we made it into 7.5 miles by taking side excursions to viewpoints and waterfalls and at the end walking from Multnomah Falls back to the car.