Leon Turnbull Photography

It seems not many people know about Oneonta Falls. It is not an advertised waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge, and in the past, it was often mistaken for smaller Middle Oneonta Falls. I think these days, more people know about it, and it is getting more traffic. It is off the beaten path, but it is not too terribly difficult to get down to. The first section is very steep, but there are plenty of handholds to use.

Oneonta Falls was one of the two waterfalls in the Gorge that I absolutely had to get to on this trip (the other being Upper Bridal Veil).  And I must say, it is a stunning location. I could have spent all day down there enjoying this one, and I really did not want to leave. It is tucked down at the bottom of a gorgeous canyon, it seems like you are in a separate world, and indeed, there will not likely be another soul in sight, and you will be able to enjoy this one all to yourself. There are plenty of photo opportunities down there as well, and you can even walk in behind the falls if you so desire. It is just a magnificent place.

On a final note, I have finally finished updating my site with all the Oregon waterfalls I visited on this trip. I have added or updated 26 Columbia River Gorge waterfalls on my site, and have added info for an additional 40 Oregon waterfalls to my site:

http://www.waterfallswest.com#recent

Leaf Placer! I have never placed a leaf for a photo in my life, and never will. Ha! Do you believe me?

This is another one from Punch Bowl Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. We spent a lot of time here wading around in the creek, taking shots, placing leaves … er, I mean looking for great compositions with Fall leaf colors in them.

This is beautiful Metlako Falls along Eagle Creek in the Columbia River Gorge. It is about 100 ft. high.

We arrived early in the morning at Punch Bowl Falls. It is such a gorgeous location and waterfall. Indeed, everyone seems to think so. Punch Bowl Falls may be the most photographed waterfall in Oregon, or right up there anyway. Last time I was here, two years ago, there was a big ugly log cutting across the middle of the waterfall. If you know this waterfall well, then you know what I am talking about. That log had been there for many years. Finally, a big storm passed through (about a year or year and a half ago, I think), and all of a sudden the log was gone! Now this waterfall is back to being its incredibly scenic self again.

Usually one needs to wade out into the middle of the stream about knee deep or so, in order to get a good viewpoint of the falls. On this day, the water level was a lot lower so you didn’t really even need to get wet to photograph the falls. But we put on our water shoes anyway, and waded out into the water. Even though we were there at sunrise, there was still some glare from the morning sun on the water.

We arrived at Multnomah Falls at sunrise on our second day in the Columbia River Gorge. In my opinion, the only time to see Multnomah Falls is at sunrise. Any other time of day, and it is overly crowded with people. Way too many people. It is of course THE place to stop in the Columbia River Gorge, and for the majority of tourists, it is probably the only place they stop in the Gorge. It is a magnificent waterfall for sure, but I prefer my waterfalls with less people. And at sunrise, there are less people. Indeed, we were the ONLY ones there at Multnomah Falls. There were a couple other cars in the parking lot when we arrived, but I imagine they belonged to people working at one of the facilities here. No one was at the waterfall. It is extremely peaceful when you are viewing a towering waterfall with no one else around.

Well, we took our photos of Multnomah, then headed up to the top. There are three other waterfalls above Multnomah Falls, and they are worth seeing. It is about a mile and a thousand feet up to the top. It seems a lot worse than it is. All the switchbacks are numbered 1 of 11, 2 of 11, 3 of 11, etc. I thought that was funny.  But at least we knew how much further we had to go up.

The first one is small Dutchman Falls. Not really worth going down to, and John did not. But I went down to take a quick shot. Then we arrived at Weisendanger Falls. It is 50 ft. high, and it is a pretty one, tucked back in a little cove. To get up to it, though, we had to get our water shoes on and wade up the creek. I arrived first, and found that we were not the only ones up so early after all. A great blue heron had gotten there before me, and was enjoying the view. Actually, he was fishing at the base of the falls. I had not brought my big lens along with me, plus it was still on the dark side, so I could not take a photo of him. By the time John had gotten up to the falls, he decided he had enough of me, and flew off, right over John’s head.

After Weisendanger, we continued up the trail to Ecola Falls, which is a very difficult one to get down to. Then we hiked over to Fairy and Wahkeena Falls, and back along the road to Multnomah where we had parked. It was probably our longest hike of the tour, and we arrived back around lunchtime. We were fortunate in that we had good lighting for all the waterfalls. I was worried about that because it was a sunny day. But these waterfalls are so tucked into the gorges, that they get very little sunlight, except for a few hours in the afternoon.