Gorge-ous Waterfalls Trip

In my last post, I said I’d tell about our spring break day trip soon. I wanted to share about the Piano Queen first, and decided to let that post be short and focused. But here’s our trip for you, in case you want road trip ideas. I’m having fun seeing my favorite Oregon places with new eyes as I play tour guide for my stepkids. And I want to practice writing more travel-article-style posts as I do that. I loved reading the family trip ideas in the recently-defunct Springfield Free For All newspaper, and want to continue that awesome family’s legacy. Enjoy! (Note – it took me a month to write it, but here it is! With a bonus waterfall trip listed at the end that we took last week)

Spring break was as rainy as a Western Oregon spring break usually is. I had to work during it, so that was fine by me, but by Saturday we were (okay, I was) desperately needing to get out of Dodge. We needed to head north to pick up one of the kids from my stepsister’s house, so we thought of places that direction. With the weather forecast, we knew it would need to be a place where we didn’t need to stray far from the car. We settled on the Columbia Gorge. The kids had never been there. I’ve been there lots of times, but I don’t think I’ve written about it much. And I’m trying to practice writing travel article-style posts. So here you go!

I decided to drive Highway 99E from Salem to avoid I-5’s vacation weekend traffic and get a bit more scenic route into our day. In Brooks, I pulled through the driveway of the old Brooks Elementary School where I used to work so the kids could see it. It’s now an Oregon Child Development Coalition facility. Our first actual stop was in Hubbard, where my stepsister lives. We got gas and pulled through the “From Russia With Love” coffee/food cart to get some lunch for the adults (I’d packed generic lunchables, fruit, and other snacks for the kids). The greater Woodburn area has a community of Russian Old Believers that settled here long ago, so it makes sense there’s a Russian fast food place! They were out of some things because of Lent, but the dumplings and potato dish were delicious. At my stepsister’s house (on the edge of town, almost in the country), we played with my niece, nephew, dogs, and goats. The baby goats had grown a little since we saw them at Christmastime, but they’re still small and adorable! Our 6 year old couldn’t pick up the baby goats, so he carried around my stepsister’s mom’s Pomeranian instead.

Driving up 99E landed us in Oregon City, so we checked out the Municipal Elevator. Evidently, there are only 4 of these in the world. This one’s been there since 1955 (replacing a wooden one before it), and is North America’s only “vertical street.” Nowadays with cars, one can just drive a block or two out of the way to get to the roads above the cliffs. But that’s no fun. We started at the top, walking around the observation deck first before taking the ride down to the road with the bridge. You can see Willamette Falls over downtown Oregon City. My husband’s favorite part of the whole day was listening to the docent who sits at the top of the elevator, waiting eagerly for tourists and kids to tell stories to. Her true story about a sternwheeler riding the rapids upriver was somehow even more incredible than her Sasquatch one.

From Oregon City, we hopped on I-205 and then I-84. We got off in Troutdale to start our journey up Historic Highway 30 there, but in retrospect, we should have started at Lewis & Clark State Park a little ways away so we could stay we started at the very beginning. But driving through the lush forest up to the cliffs of Corbett made us forget any loss. We stopped first at the Women’s Forum overlook to see the Crown Point Vista House from afar, shrouded in foggy mist.

The Vista House is a small but majestic art nouveau building, created as a rest stop observatory for travelers and a memorial to the pioneers. It’s over 100 years old and just as relevant now. It sits on Crown Point, a basalt promontory once known as “Thor’s Heights.” (See https://vistahouse.com/history/ for more information). We raced there from our car to beat the rain. Once inside, we stamped our homemade national park passport/travel journals at the visitor’s desk, and went downstairs to look at the exhibits and gift shop. Tip: the espresso stand has some overpriced candy, but also 15 cent huckleberry taffy! I stocked up on that, and when the rain subsided, the kids raced upstairs to the visitor’s deck. The views of the Columbia Gorge there are epic. But our youngest two mainly enjoyed sliding down the little ramps on the back side once the rains stopped.

After bumming around the Vista House, we drove to Latourelle Falls. This is the beginning of the Waterfall Corridor, a section of Highway 30 with tall waterfall after waterfall gushing down the sides of the cliffs. Most visitors skip the historic highway and stop at Multnomah Falls via the pullout from I-84, but I love the more intimate journey of Highway 30. The highway itself is a marvel, the first scenic highway to attain National Historic Landmark status, and this section of it is spectacular. Latourelle Falls is tall and graceful, but my favorite part of it is the octagonal basalt columns fanning out behind it. We just walked up the hill a bit to a great viewpoint, but if you have time, I recommend continuing on the steep trail to another waterfall up above it.

The next stop we made was Shepperd’s Dell Falls. This lesser-known stop along the historic road is my husband’s favorite in this area. It cascades down cliffs in several tiers and makes its way down a steep ravine below the highway bridge. According to a guy I briefly dated (the one person I met from e-Harmony, whom I call Waterfall Dave because he loves hiking to waterfalls even more than I do), the falls were named after his grandma (or great-grandma?). Online you can find that they were named for the wife of George Shepperd, who owned the land and donated it to the public in 1915. My favorite part of it is the gorgeous stonework lining the path, made from the same stonework as on the bridge.

Next we arrived at Wahkeena Falls. It is made up of a long but shallow series pf cascades below a tall, steep section up the hill behind a stone footbridge. Three of our kids chose to make the trek up to the bridge, enjoying getting sprayed by the larger fall. By this time, it had stopped raining for good, and we enjoyed the rest of the watefalls without getting wet (except by choice).

Finally we made it to Multnomah Falls, the crown jewel of the Columbia Gorge waterfalls. Unfortunately, the parking lot along the historic highway was packed, so we pressed on, stopping at Horsetail Falls, which looks like, you guessed it, a horse’s tail. We drove on to the next place to get onto I-84, doubled back, and parked at the larger parking lot for Multnomah Falls. In the summer, you have to get a pass in advance to park there, but that early in the year, we didn’t need it.

Two of the kids hadn’t gotten out of the car at the last three waterfalls, opting to stay inside and play video games. But here at Oregon’s highest one, we forced them outside for the grand finale of our day.

By this time, though, they were all a bit over waterfalls. Chris and I managed to get the kids all in one spot for some stranger to take a picture of us in front of the lower cascade with the bridge over it, which was like herding cats. They are definitely not all smiling in it. (The only time I’ve ever managed to get that photo was as they were all descending into their first cave, one of the lava tube caves in Central Oregon). They were, however, excited to go to the big gift shop and concession stand in the official Multnomah Falls Lodge.

The Lodge itself doesn’t look like much from the outside or from the main public areas (gift shop, bathrooms, etc.), at least compared to some of the other great lodges of Oregon like Timberline and Crater Lake. But Chris and I took turns exploring upstairs to the restaurant while the other supervised the kids in the gift shop. It looks amazing! And romantic, with sweeping views of the waterfall. We made a mental note to come back and eat here sometime for an anniversary or something. Without the kids.

We got concessions food for the kids (and a swirl ice cream cone for me… it’s tradition there! No matter how cold and grey it is out!) and headed back toward Portland. In Clackamas, we tried to stop for food for us grownups at the German restaurant Gustav’s, but it was closed for good. So sad! Then we tried the big restaurants by the mall, but Claim Jumper had a three hour wait. We ended up in a quiet but delicious Thai food place in a strip mall. The kids got potstickers and boba tea, and Chris and I got curry.

Late that night we arrived home, full of food and nature’s beauty. This year’s winter was extra long and dark and wet, and even though it was still dark and wet that day, I realized how much I’d needed to escape into God’s wonderful creation. We didn’t get to go very far for spring break this year, but one day in the Columbia Gorge made it feel like a vacation.

What are your favorite memories of the Columbia Gorge?

A good few weeks later, we finally got spring weather. Some warmth and even a little sunshine. Last Saturday, we took Marcola Road through the Coburg Hills to Sweet Home, and hiked the McDowell Creek waterfalls trails. They are so beautiful this time of year! Gushing waterfalls framed by green moss and ferns. Trails lined with trilliums. The kids had a great time climbing up stumps and waterfalls, walking on logs, squeezing into cavernous evergreen trunks,eating sorrel, and looking at the blooming trilliums. Afterwards we ate on the patio of The Point restaurant overlooking Foster Reservoir. I’m so grateful that spring has finally sprung! Today I’m up in Mt. Angel with my writing buddies, having a little writing retreat in the guest house of the Abbey, with views of the mountain ranges and the valley below us. How are you enjoying this beautiful spring weather?