Crown Point and Multnomah Falls

Vista House -- Crown Point

Multnomah Falls

 Sis from Minnesota is here for her annual visit home. Today we took her boys and grandma & grandpa up the Old Highway.

Our first stop was Bridal Veil Falls. I stayed with my dad who can't walk far and the others hiked down to see these beautiful waterfalls.

Second stop was Crown Point where you can see up and down the mighty Columbia river.

Gorgeous day. Not too hot. Lots of tourists. I picked up some postcards for my friend in Japan who not only collects them but sometimes uses them when she does Postcrossing.

 Looking upriver - eastwards.

Looking downriver - towards Portland

Squirrely nephews

 It's been a very dry year and there are sandbars in the river we've never seen.
Multnomah Falls is running light too.
 If you want to see some spectacular photos of these two landmarks,  my blog friend, Teresa Kasner,  volunteers up here and takes delicious photos of both of these beautiful Oregon places.
She has a much better camera.

 We hiked nearly to the upper falls but the narrow trail, the fact we were wearing flip flops and the throngs of tourists -- we turned back before reaching the upper viewpoint.

Lots of selfie sticks in evidence.
Japanese, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Korean, Aussies, Europeans.  Many different accents.

 

 Our last stop was Horseshoe Falls. Very cold water; the boys enjoyed every minute of it.

Husband and Wife Waterfall, Fudo Waterfall, Mayoto Waterfall

In a very, out of the way, skinny back road, was a beautiful setting for a temple.

You look left to see a delightful bridge to cross the stream.
Look right as the stream falls through massive rocks.

This shrine was uniquely situated in a cave amongst the rocks.

Four leaf lucky clovers grow here

One last thing. See the last 2 photos? That's the road in.   Looks like a trail?
Nuh-uh.
Erosion from raging waters has undercut that skinny road too. 
These narrow roads are all over Japan.

We parked back on the main skinny road in a rare pull-out. And walked in. Not far - less than 1/4 mile.

Almost forgot to show you the Husband & Wife waterfalls.
I couldn't insert it earlier in the post with this app.
Beautiful.
This little gorge minus a bright orange temple is so similar to Oregon.

And I  hit that big gong -- twice.
Sweet booming sound.

Oneonta Falls

We met up with my sis at Multnomah Falls.
Our plan was to have lunch here and then hike Oneonta Falls.

Don't go this way. You can -- but don't say I didn't warn you.


Staircase down to the creek. We hiked up Oneonta Gorge -- up the creek.
Literally.

This is the Best Hike Ever.
It's short (1.8 miles), level, easy but it has a few obstacles.
The first one is a giant logjam at the beginning.

Looking back - you're gonna come back to this one.


The gorge walls close you in - much cooler than the 92' out there.
There was very little dry land.

Wall-to-wall water.




The second obstacle? 3 feet of water to wade through.
HaHaHa!
It was more like 4 feet - nearly up to my neck.
Got your ziploc for your camera?

My turn.

And here we are a short time later.

The best hike ever.







This was the first photo I took at Multnomah Falls which I had assumed was a dud - glaring sunlight and all that.
When I got home - I decided it was pretty cool.