Wahclella Falls Waterfall Expedition

Yesterday a couple of friends and I hit the road for the Columbia River Gorge in search of new waterfalls to pursue. This time we took the Wahclella Falls trail, one of the easiest and most popular hike in the Gorge that ends in a major waterfall. I had been aching to get out to the Columbia River Gorge before the fall leaves fell of the trees and I ended up having a great time.

The trail was absolutely gorgeous and colorful, open to the sun while trafficking next to the river. There wasn't much uphill compared to other Gorge hikes I've been on. I think a lot about which hikes to take potential out-of-town visitors, and this trail was without a doubt the place to take people who don't particularly care about hiking - easy and rewarding for every step.

Check out those fall colors!

  

On the way to Wahclella Falls is the much smaller Lower Munra Falls, which would be unassuming if not for being just a couple feet away from a bridge you cross within the first half-mile on the trail, coming out of nowhere just after you turn a bend. The 50-foot cascade is hard to understand - I didn't get a handle on it (or any good pictures) until the return journey. It's a shy sort of waterfall forced into the forefront of the trail, and only after approaching it from the distance when it was easier to see did it look much more natural. Unlike the other waterfalls I saw that day, Lower Munra Falls wanted to be a secondary feature of the landscape, accentuating the  river, trees, and hillside landscape. I bet it would be much happier without the bridge, even.

Close-up on Munra Falls. Those little trails actually looked like trickling bubbles. Up close the waterfall actually looked a lot like a jacuzzi.

Half a mile of moderate uphill later was Wahclella Falls, the main fall dropping 60 feet at much greater power than the slightly shorter Lower Munra Falls. I'd seen pictures of Wahclella Falls before, and while I knew it was one of the most popular waterfalls in the Gorge I admittedly didn't have high expectations. The falls looked powerful and short, like a dwarf. Not graceful and dainty as some shorter waterfalls are to make up for the power and force of their larger cousins. From the pictures Wahclella looked like it wanted to fall more or come out in a thinner stream - whatever it was, the waterfall's proportions looked all wrong. 

It turns out I was all wrong. Wahclella took its strangely shaped body in stride, being beautiful in a completely different way than I've seen in a waterfall. It was charismatic: it had corralled a sizable pool of water, boulders, and plant life at its base where it was the sovereign, and I got the impression that these aspects of nature had gathered willingly to the waterfall. There was even another waterfall above Wahclella Falls, called East Fork Falls, that flows into Wahclella Falls just before the drop. It was magnetic and wise, and I felt drawn to it. It made me just want to follow it. 

Wahclella Falls was also helpful. While I was struggling to find ways to photograph it using tactics I've used in the past, I wasn't discouraged and frustrated but instead encouraged to try out new photography skills, and the waterfall rewarded me with great pictures. For example, being a powerful waterfall, Wahclella Falls kicks up a great deal of mist, making close-range photography just about impossible. I had really wanted a close-up picture of the base of the falls to show how strong it was churning up the water at the base, but when my lens grew covered with mist I couldn't take the picture. But with my fuzzy lens Wahclella Falls took on a new kind of beauty, the graceful beauty I couldn't see at first, especially with the sun reflecting off East Fork Falls above it. I took pictures like I'd never taken before:

Misty Wahclella

Blue Wahclella. The jets on this waterfall came out really well at 1/200 second shutter speed. This one looks like a dolphin jumping out of the water.

After Wahclella Falls we had enough time to check out Horsetail Falls and Ponytail Falls (AKA Upper Horsetail Falls). Horsetail Falls is just across a parking lot when you drive on Historic Highway 30, so it wasn't very far out of our way. Because of its ease to see, Horsetail Falls is also a pretty famous waterfall in the Gorge, and it might have been impressive had it been easier to get to. Being so exposed made it look naked and self-conscious.

Doesn't it look like a horse's tail?

This waterfall is too famous for me to be the only photographer around

Ponytail Falls was a short, half-mile hike past Horsetail falls, but it was almost entirely uphill - we had to climb Horsetail Falls to get at the falls behind it. And Ponytail was very close behind it. Both Horsetail Falls and Ponytail Falls are very aptly named. At Ponytail Falls we saw the best combination of fall colors near a waterfall. Plus you get to walk behind Ponytail Falls on the trail, which is a cool bonus. However the sun was in the wrong spot for the pictures I wanted most, so a lot of my shots came out less vibrant than I'd hoped. I'll have to go back. 

First sighting of Ponytail Falls from the tail

Even so, if Wahkeena Falls required me to challenge myself to photograph it, Ponytail Falls was so photogenic that I barely had to try in order to make it look good. The water leaped out like an excited puppy (or "pony"), starving for attention. I happily obliged. But as I obliged I fell part-way into the river. That's how it goes sometimes. It was totally worth it.

Courtney, Katie, and Me at Wahclella Falls