Leon Turnbull Photography

There were two places I especially wanted to make it to on this trip. I did one: Lower Oneonta Falls in the Columbia River Gorge (the other I will explain on another post). Lower Oneonta Falls is arguably the best of all the waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge, perhaps even topping the towering Multnomah Falls. What makes this waterfall so great is the adventure it takes to get to it. The waterfall is tucked back about a half mile inside a deep narrow gorge. The only way to get to this waterfall is to wade up the creek to it, up and over a huge, slippery log jam, then continue up the creek through waist high, cold water. It is pretty much impossible to get there in winter or in the spring when the creek is much higher and colder. Summer is the best time to go here. Unfortunately, it is also the busiest.

I met up with another crazy waterfall hunter and photographer, Ara, who lives in Portland. She led myself and my 6 year old son, Jadon, up the creek without a paddle. My wife stayed back in the car with Nekoda for this hike (too bad for her, but it would’ve been a bit tough taking Nekoda). When I say the water was up to my waist, I am not kidding. That means it was up to my son’s chest! Jadon had an absolute blast wading up to this waterfall. It was a heckuva lot of fun. Unfortunately, though, he got rather cold waiting around while Ara and I took our photos. He was shivering as we waded back to the car, and the return trip was not too fun for him.

There were a surprising number of people in the Columbia River Gorge on the day we were here. We definitely should’ve been here during the middle of the week, instead of on the weekend. However, when we first arrived at Lower Oneonta Falls, we were the only ones there. We managed to get in a couple of photos before the next group arrived. They promptly walked right in front of Ara and I, who were clearly in the middle of trying to take a photo. They had absolutely no regard for us, as they splashed and swam under the waterfall. Talk about irritating! Who is so inconsiderate that they just walk right in front of someone while trying to take a picture? Well, there was not much else we could do but go back at that point. Jadon was rather cold by then anyway, so we hurried back and got him dried and into some warm clothes.

Well, I am back from vacation. It was a whirlwind trip up to my parents in Rossland BC, then over to Cranbrook to visit my sister and her family, then a 1 day stint at the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon on the way home. I officially saw 20 waterfalls on this trip. All in about a one week span. Don’t worry too much. I won’t be posting all 20 of them on this blog (though they will probably all make it onto my main waterfalls site). But I will be posting many waterfall shots over the next couple weeks, and I am sure you will be quite sick of waterfalls by the end of it. hee hee.

Not all the waterfalls I visited were new ones. Beaver Falls in Trail BC, I have visited twice before. I was here in the winter when it was much too dangerous to get to the bottom. I was here in the spring when it was possible to get to the bottom of the canyon, but impossible to get up to the base of the falls because the creek is rushing too fast, and there is a big rock wall you need to negotiate around in order to get up to the waterfall. In the summer, however, it is quite easy to get right up to the bottom of this 62 ft. high falls. The creek was flowing about what I expected for this time of year, so I was definitely rather pleased to see a nice flow to this fabulous waterfall.

From the top of the canyon, it is a very steep descent to get down to the base of the falls. I noticed a rope leading down a “new”, well worn path to the bottom. Obviously, most people go down this way, but it looked far too steep to me. I knew there was an easier path leading down to the bottom, but that other path is now a bit overgrown. On the way back up, I decided to try the “rope” path. That was a mistake. As I got up to the top, desperately holding on to the rope on a very steep slope, I realized I needed to somehow climb up and over a large tree branch to get up the last section. If I had slipped, I would’ve been back down at the bottom of the canyon in a couple seconds. I did make it up. Barely. But I don’t understand why most people would choose this difficult and dangerous descent/ascent, rather than the much easier path.

I’ll be gone for a few days on a much needed vacation. Work has been rather stressful lately to say the least. We are going up to Canada to visit my family for a quick, short, trip. The real nice thing is my mom is paying for the trip. Sweet. Thanks mom. What can you expect when I get back? Hopefully, some great new photographs, especially of some new waterfalls. I am planning to see quite a few new ones on this trip, including a quick stop for 1 day in the Columbia River Gorge as well. I wonder how many waterfalls I can get to in 1 day.

In the meantime, here is another from our sunset excursion craziness to the top of Mt. Brokeoff. It was probably taken right around sunset. The sun had gone behind some clouds, but really lit up the sky with some wonderful colors. This is one of my favourites from that evening.

Just above Kings Creek Falls is an exciting series of cascades called (oddly enough) Kings Creek Cascades. They total about 100 ft. high, and they are very scenic and photogenic. I was warned, however, that the light hits them very very early in the day. My plan was to photograph Kings Creek Falls first thing, at sunrise. Then work my way back up to the cascades. I arrived at the cascades before 7AM, but the sunlight was already hitting them.

So what, you may say. What’s wrong with that? Well, when the sunlight is strong and harsh, it does not make for a pleasant photograph. It is usually much better to photograph waterfalls when it is overcast, or if the scene is in shade (before the sun hits it). Sometimes warm sunlight at sunrise or sunset can be nice on a waterfall, but never harsh mid day sunlight. Anyway, so the sun was already pretty harsh on Kings Creek Cascades when I arrived. I did, however, find this section at the very top of the cascades which was still rather nice. This scenic section of the stream is found just before the creek makes its big descent.

It just so happened that the full moon would be rising right around sunset while we were on the top of Mt. Brokeoff. That is the reason we wanted to hike up there of course on that particular evening. It would have been perfect if the moon would have risen right above Mt. Lassen. But alas, that was not to be the case. You can’t have everything. I guess. Instead, the moon was rising more to the east. It was a bright orange/red color as it rose above the horizon. It was definitely a great adventure being up on Mt. Brokeoff as the full moon rose.

This shot was taken with my 100-400L lens, which I lugged up to the top of Brokeoff. It is a heavy beast, and would have made much more sense to leave it at home considering how difficult the hike is to to the top. But I knew I would want it for taking photos of the moon. I did leave my other 24-105L lens at the bottom, as well as every other thing I didn’t absolutely need on the hike, to save as much weight as possible. All in all, my bag was pretty heavy. But I made it.