Leon Turnbull Photography

Seven straight days of plus 100 degree weather in California. That was the forecast. Indeed on the north end of the valley the 100 degree weather is even extending well into a second week. As it turned out, miraculously, my vacation plans precisely co-incided with the impending doom. But even Oregon would be experiencing the roast, particularly in the location where I was initially planning to go for a few days of family camping. I decided in the late moments to change plan, and instead head over to the northern Oregon coast, much to my wife’s delight. She loves the ocean and when her annual vacation with her mom over to the CA coast fell through, she was left without her coastal fix this year. She cried for days on end (kidding!). Needless to say, it did not take much convincing on my part to talk her into going camping on the OR coast instead of inland Oregon. About a quarter of a second is what I think it took. I timed it. The temperature forecast on the northern Oregon coast? High 70’s. The temperature back home? 110. Any second thoughts? Nope.

Before getting to the coast we decided to stop one night in Salem in a motel. I had wanted to take my family to Abiqua Falls, but after reading about it more, I realized the hike was a little more intense than I initially thought for a family hike. I do think our kids could have done that hike, but there were some very steep sections, and we would have had to be very careful. And I am sure there would have been many protests. Regardless, there was certainly no way our old dog would have been able to do that hike. Her mind is more than willing, but her body is now unable to co-operate. She can still do easy hikes though, so I decided to take them to Henline Falls instead, another waterfall I really wanted to go to, and this one is an easy 1 mile trek. I did end up going to Abiqua Falls by myself, and I will be sharing that photo next.

In the Salem area the temperature was about 85 degrees when we arrived at the trailhead, but the humidity was unreal. We were sweating raindrops after about 10 minutes into the hike. Big massive raindrops. I think the rains we had last week really increased the humidity exponentially. Normally, it is not like this at all in the summer. What is up with this craziness? If I liked humidity, I would live in Missouri.

It was wonderful and cool at the waterfall, however. Henline Falls is 98 ft. high, and the trail takes you right to the base of the falls. This makes it a very difficult waterfall to photograph. Even at lower flows, there is a lot of mist at the falls, and thus not very many compositions available for photographing it. We enjoyed the waterfall for quite a while, eating picnic dinner, checking out the cave beside the waterfall, and taking many photos.