Oh Wahclella!
We left Rossland BC at 5AM. My wife was not happy. My kids were not happy (but at least they fell back asleep in the car). It is a 500 and something mile drive from Rossland to Portland, and I wanted to arrive at the Columbia River Gorge early enough to do the hike to Wahclella Falls and also get to Multnomah Falls before dark. My plan worked. Too well even.
Going through the border crossing from Canada to the U.S. is always interesting. Going the other way is always easy. The Canadian officials are always so nice and easy going. The U.S. officials however … This time, the guy asked me a question I had not been asked before. I am a Canadian citizen and have a “green card” as a U.S. resident. He asked me for how long I have been a resident of the U.S. I don’t know that! It is indicated right on the green card you have in your hand, bub. Why don’t you just look at it? I know when I came down to the U.S. (Nov. ’98), and I know when I got married (May ’99), but why would I know when I officially became a U.S. resident? The whole experience of obtaining a green card was a total nightmare I am still trying to forget. Anyway, after that question, the guy became somewhat suspicious and started asking me a whole lot of other questions. Where do you live? What is your birthday? Where do you work? What did you eat for dinner last night? What is the color of your wife’s toothbrush? Fortunately, I was able to answer them satisfactorily, and they let us through. Whew, why do they have to make everything so stressful?
Anyway, leaving so early worked out extremely well (my wife may think otherwise, though). We arrived at the Columbia River Gorge a few hours earlier than anticipated. That allowed me to see a few additional waterfalls I had not planned on seeing (gotta like that!). And we had plenty of time to make the hike up to see Wahclella Falls as well. It is a short 1 mile hike up to the waterfall. I carried Nekoda (she’s up to 40 pounds now!). My wife carried my camera gear. I didn’t make her carry the heavy tripod though. You see, I am a nice husband, aren’t I? 🙂
I had not been to Wahclella Falls before. For some reason, we skipped it on our last trip to the Gorge 6 or so years ago. It is one of the best waterfalls in the Gorge, the bottom most-visible tier crashing 81 ft down into a tremendous pool. It is a sight to see, and even in the late season, Tanner Creek has a lot of flow. I knew I wanted to get right down in the creek over on the right side to take my photos, and that is where I went straight away. As a bonus, I even got a reflection of the waterfall in the creek. Reflections of waterfalls are something that are rare to find, and when I do find them, they never seem to turn out in the photograph as clear as I would like. But this time, the reflection turned out extremely well. I was very pleased.
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