The Pacific Northwest...

I found myself being able to make a trip to the Portland, Oregon area so, as you might suspect, I packed up my gear and headed north. The last time I was in Oregon, it involved a Coast Guard helicopter and a traumatic head injury, as I was the subject of a medevac off the USS Chandler back in 1984. That's a story for another time, though. This visit, thankfully, would include neither the head injury nor the helicopter.

 

I arrived in Portland before 11:00am, and was met by friends who quickly whisked me away to their house. We sat and talked for only a brief period of time before deciding that the "photo ops jones" had gotten the better of us. We would head out, cameras in hand, for the remainder of the day.

 

I'd looked around online and saw some really cool waterfalls which were out along the Columbia River Gorge. We hopped in the car and headed out towards Multnomah Falls.

 

This whole region is unlike anything you're likely to find anywhere else. Pines reach seemingly for miles into the sky, and there's water everywhere you look; around every bend in the road.

 

Our first stop was at a park/overlook area known as Portland Women's Forum. Now, I guess the jury is still out as to why it's called that, because we still don't know the origin of the name. What we do know is that from Chanticleer Point, located within the park, you can get an amazing view of the Columbia River and Crown Point:

 

Crown Point, center-right, overlooking the Columbia River, as seen from Chanticleer Point...

Yours truly on a rock wall at Chanticleer Point. Yours truly was blown off the wall twice...
 Photo by Carrie Warlaumont

The one thing I noticed, rather quickly, I might add, is how ridiculously windy it is here. It's times like this when I'm glad my instructions to my hair stylist are simply "Just gimme' a #3 blade over the whole thing".

 

In another life, with hair down to the middle of my back, this place would've spelled disaster. Now, the wind just combs my continuously disappearing hair.

 

We had wanted to visit Crown Point (shown in the photo above), but the road was closed for maintenance, and would be through the end of October. Since I wasn't going to be here that long, I had to come to grips with the fact that Crown Point would simply not make it onto my itinerary.

 

Multnomah Falls, however, definitely would.

 

The falls are actually located near the town of Bridal Veil, which is a virtual ghost town these days. All that remains is a cemetery and a post office. There's actually no "population", as the post office is the only building that's still standing and, insofar as I can tell, nobody lives in it.

 

The reason the cemetery still exists is probably obvious. The post office? Probably a bit less so. Every spring and summer, the post office fills up with wedding invitations awaiting the "Bridal Veil" postmark. Every time the post office threatens to shut down the Bridal Veil branch, it's believed that both the support of locals and of the wedding industry helps to keep its doors open. Regardless the reason, it's nice to see something like this withstand the test of time and what some would consider "progress":

 

The United States Post Office in Bridal Veil, Oregon...

 

Not far from the post office, we happened upon what's know as Shepperd's Dell. Shepperd's Dell is an area which is difficult to photograph due to the topography, or so they say. Personally, I just don't think the photographers who said that were industrious enough:

 

The falls at Shepperd's Dell...

The bridge of the Historic Columbia River Highway, which runs over Shepperd's Dell...

 

After Shepperd's Dell, it was off to Multnomah Falls. This is what I'd found online as "the place" I wanted to visit.

 

The falls have a total height of 620 feet, although that's divided into two sections. The falls drop in two major steps, split into an upper falls of 542 feet and a lower falls of 69 feet. There's a gradual 9 foot  drop in elevation between the two, so the total height of the waterfall is conventionally given as 620 feet. However you slice it, though, it's impressive. It's also the highest waterfall in all of Oregon:

 

620 feet of Multnomah Falls, with the Benson Footbridge shown, as well...

We spent some time walking along the trail and across Benson Footbridge, which is named for Simon Benson, who financed its construction in 1914. We opted against hiking to the top of the falls, primarily because of the time factor. With the other stops we'd made, we didn't make it to Multnomah Falls until late mid-afternoon. Given the distance of the hike, and the fact that we'd have to deal with weekday traffic during rush hour, we decided to forego the hike and make an early departure back to Portland.

On the way back to Portland, though, we still managed to make a few stops here and there to satisfy our photographic urges. We did find some cool stop-offs to shoot:

 

 

If you're someone who enjoys shooting creeks, rivers, rock formations; what have you, the Columbia River Gorge offers more ample opportunity than you could hope for anywhere else. This was a photo op from the dark side, and I'm glad I had the chance to take advantage of it...