Hiking Multnomah Falls and a Stop at Bonneville

The waterfall at the top of all the "things to see in Oregon" list is Multnomah Falls. Since it's just a few miles down the road from where we are camping, it was top on our list too. We were expecting rain in the afternoon, so we were up early to make this hike in the morning. We were bundled up in rain gear when we arrived at the view point for the classic picture. That's the 542-foot drop of the upper falls in the background, with the bridge over the 59-foot lower falls in the foreground.

That picture is where many tourists' experience with Multnomah Falls would end. But we have all day (or until the day turns too wet) to explore this area. So we headed east out of the parking lot on a hike that will take us to several more waterfalls. In one mile we get to Wahkeena Falls. You might notice that Mark gets to be in the picture when the rocks in front of the waterfall are slippery or the path is really muddy.

We have to say that the first couple miles of this trail are not much fun. The jackets are off because we are working hard to get up the front slope of this mountain. We are also moving along the side of the Columbia River Gorge, with full view of the busy four-lane highway now far below. But the engine noise of all the passing trucks is echoing up that canyon making this a very industrial-sounding walk in nature. Even though it looked like we were taking a pristine walk in the woods, it sure didn't sound like it.

When we got to Lemmon's Viewpoint we could see down to the wide Columbia River, and see that noisy ribbon of highway 84.

The rain has held off so far, but there are still dramatic clouds over our blue skies this morning. The speck in the middle of those clouds is an osprey on a surveillance mission.

We were glad when the trail turned into the mountains, and we were suddenly enveloped by forest and away from the noise of the highway. We've been hiking up-hill for almost an hour by the time we get to Fairy Falls.

We were surprised at how long we got to enjoy a paved trail on this hike. But as soon as the asphalt ended, the mud began. We got some extra steps in today as we had to walk from side-to-side trying to avoid the worst mud and water holes in the middle of the trail.

We're seeing some new wildflowers on this trail, so Denisa is taking more pictures. The visitor center had a pictorial guide, and it was really handy to identify these new-to-us blooms. This is a shining Oregon grape plant. We don't know if that means there is fruit involved later this summer, but it's very pretty in the spring.

Mark is beginning to think that Denisa doesn't really like wildflowers. Perhaps she's just using this as an excuse to rest during these steep climbs up the mountain. Either way, this is the first time we've seen this vanilla-leaf. Pioneer women used to dry the odd-shaped leaves to use as a fragrant room freshener.

We've seen domesticated versions of this flower, but these wild bleeding hearts were high up on the mountain. Their sweet pink blooms were perfectly aligned to show off their hearts.

When Mark has the camera, he tends to miss the little flowers and take pictures of the big trees around us. We have now traversed all the up-hill sections, and the toes of our hiking boots are finally pointed down.

Even though we were rather disappointed with the noise and the man-made aspects of this hike in the beginning, we are loving the solitude and beauty of this trail now. We have seen only a few people all morning, and now we are hiking beside the white rapids of a clear mountain stream. We have wandered into another of God's wonders today.

We've been on the trail for 2.5 hours when we get to our next big waterfall. Unlike the "Trail of Ten Falls" that we hiked last week, there isn't any signage to tell you the name of the next big waterfall coming up. So we think this is our best view from the top of Ecola Falls.

It was only another ten-minute hike to get to our first views of the beautiful Weisendanger Falls. As you can see, Mark isn't satisfied with the views from the distance, so he is scrambling over the wet and slippery logs and rocks to get closer.

That's better now, with a perfectly framed picture of him closer to the falls so we can get a better idea of how big and majestic they really are. But he couldn't help but wonder what that cave-like opening in the mountain on the left looked like if he could get on the other side of that big log.

While trying to go around that slippery log in the even slippery mud, he lost his footing and was heading for a cold dunking in that creek.

Somehow he caught himself before going into the water. He has a muddy shirt, a scratch on his back, and his waterproof hiking boots were now holding in the water that came over the tops. This is his second fall in front of a waterfall in a week's time. Either he's getting less agile, or we're visiting too many beautifully slippery waterfalls.

We have really enjoyed this section of the hike, as we walk beside the Multnomah Creek that is forming all these beautiful waterfalls. We are also seeing more and more hikers as we are getting closer to the star of the show in this area.

The star is where we started this morning--Multnomah Falls. Mark took this picture down from the viewing platform at the top of the falls. From there we can also see the parking lot is almost full of cars even on this week day with predicted rains. We have heard about the summer crowds that make finding a parking place very difficult.

The crowds definitely picked up as we started our descent from the top of Multnomah. The switchbacks on the trail are numbered so those coming up know just how much further it is to the top. There are eleven switchbacks total, and it's definitely easier going down these kind of slopes. Almost to the bottom, we got the closest that visitors are allowed to this powerful waterfall. People don't linger here long, as the mist from the falls can be drenching.

Mark hiked to the bottom of the falls to get the classic picture. That's Denisa waving from the bridge.

We had to zoom in to prove that it really was Denisa waving way up there.

We finished the 6-mile hike just where we started it--this time with Mark in front of Multnomah Falls. After a disappointing beginning with all the highway noise, this turned into a hike with a great ending.

The promised rain hadn't started yet, so we drove a bit further down the road to Bonneville. Even though we didn't know this place existed until today, we heard about it at the Multnomah visitor center. It was so interesting that we made two stops in Bonneville. The first was at the salmon fish hatchery. Nothing is happening here this time of year. but they are really busy in the fall. Then the eggs are harvested and fertilized from the salmon working their way up the Columbia River to spawn. We watched the film that describes the process of growing those fertilized eggs into baby salmon called fingerlings (because they are about the size of a finger). The only thing to see right now are the big trout that are hanging out waiting on visitors to buy some fish food. Denisa never thought she would say that a fish is pretty, but they are good-looking fish with their rainbow-like sides.

But the real show-stopper at the hatchery is this giant sturgeon with his own special viewing pond. Herman the Sturgeon is over 8-feet long, and is thought to be over 70 years old. Even though he is impressive in size, Denisa will say that Herman is not pretty.

The other stop was the Bonneville Lock and Dam. These are the folks in charge of the three dams that control the flow of the Columbia River at this point. They do lots of things here, such as raising the water in the locks for the boats making passage up the Columbia River. They are also kept busy by running the hydro-electric power plants that use that powerful river flow to generate electricity. We showed up at the visitor's center just minutes before the 3:00 ranger-led tour started. So we got an unexpected tour of the historic power house that was built in the 1930's and is still doing a great job today. Since it was built at the same time as the Oregon state capitol, we notice the similar art deco style in this power house that now has 8 generators.

Running massive generators and damming the Columbia River could have been the end of all those salmons' attempts to return to their spawning ground upstream. So the corp of engineers has added several aids to help the salmon do what their instincts tell them to do. One of those aids is the fish ladder that the fish will swim up to get them past the dams. It probably should be called a fish staircase, as the fish swim up and through holes in this set of water stairs.

The salmon that make their way up the ladder will then swim in front of a window in the basement of the visitor center. There are people who works here with the official title of "fish counter." Working 8-hour shifts, the fish counter sits in front of that window and will tally the number and kind of each fish that swims upstream. The flow of fish is slow during the smaller spring spawning season with only around 1,000 fish per day. But the rush in the fall keeps them busy counting over 60,000 fish in a single day.

After parading in front of the window, the adult fish must make their way through this maze to get to the open water up-river. Likewise, there are also specially-built channels for the young salmon to swim through to get back to the ocean. Many of the adults will be intercepted for their eggs and sperm for raising the millions of babies at the fish hatchery we just visited. While it seems cruel to do this, the survival rate at the hatchery is so remarkably higher than the eggs laid in the wild. This process has actually kept the number of salmon in the wild at a healthy number.

We learned much from our unplanned stop in Bonneville. We understand the process and timing of the salmon spawn, we learned how the salmon hatchery will aid in raising more young salmon, we know about the efforts to save the salmon when unnatural barricades like dams and electrical plants get in the way of their natural plan. We love to learn as we travel, and it's also nice when we get to visit beautiful places like Multnomah Falls too!