Ben Mayer Goes To Portland Part II

With Ben's final day in Portland we returned to the Columbia River Gorge, this time to Eagle Creek. This time I only had my 55-200mm lens, usually reserved for bird-watching. Not usually the best for landscape or waterfall photography, but I had to make do. But there were certainly perks. Snow on the ground being one of them, the incredible blueness of the river being another, along with its huge swelling flow, so big that the popular view of Punch Bowl Falls was completely covered by the fast-moving river. And as a final bonus I got to see easily missed Metlako Falls (as shown above) and sexy Loowit Falls.

Punch Bowl Falls as seen from above. I took this shot with the lens that no longer works. As you see, it does indeed generate photographs with recognizable content. However, the colors are duller and darker. I must fix it.

Impact! Eagle Creek hammers into a rock.

A side stream makes its way to Eagle Creek. This time of year, with all the snow melt, the canyon walls practically oozed streams like this one, complete with a host of seasonal cascades and waterfalls. Gorgeous!

A surfable rapid in Eagle Creek

The top of Lower Punch Bowl Falls, which boomed impressively... not the small falls I jumped off in the summer!

Sexy Loowit Falls has that seductive curve at the base. I'm not sure how tall the falls truly is - I've heard 60 and 100 feet... very different figures, but I'd err towards the 100 side - but it sure it elegant. Between the swirling pool and the voluptuous twist at the bottom... what a model!

This is the last photo I took with my broken 18-55mm.

Snow covered the hills as we walked by. It made a better picture in my mind than in reality. As was many pictures of the day with the lens I wasn't used to.

Eagle Creek

Loowit Falls as seen from later on the trail.

Loowit Falls meets up with Upper Punch Bowl Falls. They both fall into the same pool. Rats. I guess this means Loowit's already taken.

Metlako Falls is 100 feet tall and can only be seen downriver from a lookout ridge. This is the only view you get. But to get there you have to follow a trail that looks like it's leading you amiss - it's not marked until you get there for some reason. Anyway, here it tumbles into Eagle Creak, making its own cloud of mist above. We could see the cloud of mist for about a quarter of a mile before we reached the waterfall. Beautiful.

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.