Ben Mayer Comes To Portland Part I

My cousin Ben was in town for the last couple of weeks taking a class to become a wilderness first responder (congrats, cousin!). With the couple of days he had left before returning to Michigan we went on a couple of hikes, checking out the amazing unique beauty of the Columbia River Gorge. Luckily the first day was also Courtney's day off so we all got to spend the day together and see a number of waterfalls:

First stop was Multnomah Falls. Now way could Ben come all the way out here from Michigan and not see this.

Next was Horsetail Falls, which raged much stronger than last time I saw it.

Just above Horsetail Falls sits Ponytail Falls, also much stronger than I remember. I didn't dare venture near the stream this time.

The trail joined up with the Oneonta Gorge trail where we saw Middle Oneonta Falls. Lower Oneonta Falls is only accessible by stream wading because the Oneonta Gorge is so narrow, and Upper Oneonta Falls is only seen by a steep scramble off trail. I didn't think it was worth it, so we only saw the middle falls.

Finally we came to our destination: the 100-foot tall and aptly named Triple Falls. Below is the gang: Me, Courtney, Ben, and two of Ben's friends.

We had some extra time so we also did the short walk to Latourell Falls. These waterfalls are different beasts in winter flow.

A side stream falls towards Triple Falls

An experimental shot I took of Ponytail Falls, with 8 seconds exposed of a tree and 2.5 seconds exposed of the waterfall.

Multnomah Falls billows

The stream just above Triple Falls

The river just above Triple Falls

Multnomah Falls and the river flowing from it

A stream makes its way to Triple Falls

Seeing double at Triple Falls

Latourell Falls. Moments later I took a nasty fall and broke some of the plastic on my 18-55 mm lens and now it won't stay attached to the camera body. It was a terrible loss and hopefully won't be too expensive to fix.