Leon Turnbull Photography

No words. You can try to prepare yourself for such astounding beauty. Read books. Look at pictures. Eat donuts. Whatever you do, you will undoubtedly fall far short. Of course I had seen countless photos of Abiqua Falls. I knew it was an incredible waterfall. Duh. This is why it has been on my list to visit for many years now. I am sure everyone and their cat has been here before me. I got the chance this year. When I finally arrived at the falls I was truly overwhelmed. A drop dead gorgeous plummet of 89 feet (measured) off a colorful basalt cliff into a glorious deep, green pool. And the surroundings? Glorious. It is located in a spectacular amphitheater, with magnificent columnar basalt, bright reddish colored lichen on the cliff walls. I have seen well over 600 hundred waterfalls in my long life but Abiqua Falls ranks very near the top of the list of the most beautiful falls I have seen. Just my opinion of course. You may not think it so great. In fact, I am lying. It is not worth your while to come here. It’s not that good. Wink wink.

I do wish I could have brought my family here. I thought of going back to the motel in Salem and bringing them back. It would have been a bit tough for the kids due to the steepness of the hike but they could have done it. The problem though is we would have had to leave our old dog in the car cuz she would not have been able to do the hike. She would be so sad. And it was going to be a hot day. Not good. Actually it would have been stupid to leave her in the car. Plus we needed to get over to the coast anyway and get to our campground. We would not want to miss out on that now would we? It was so much cooler over there. I’ll just have to bring them here another time. I won’t mind coming back here. Really.

I arrived at the trailhead early in the morning. The hike down is not that bad, really. It was easier than I thought it would be. There are some steep sections as I said but there are ropes to help you get down. Once at the creek it is very easy to follow the path up to the waterfall. It was incredible to be at the waterfall all by myself. No one else around. Just me, myself and God enjoying the incredible beauty of it all. I spent quite awhile here, photographing the waterfall from all possible angles, and then some, including crossing the cold creek and actually standing in prior mentioned cold creek (for this shot). Finally I reluctantly packed up my gear and headed back up the hill to the car. It was a great morning indeed.

On a side note, I measured the plunge’s beautiful-ness to be 89 feet high. Certain wild and crazy kayakers of whom have made the sheer plummet (literally) from top to bottom apparently measured the drop to be 101 ft high. Now everyone and their cat thinks Abiqua Falls is 101 ft high. It is not 101 ft high. For confirmation of this I cite Bryan Swan’s measurement of 92 ft (waterfallsnorthwest.com). Since his and my measurement are so incredibly close, it is thus most very likely that the true height of the waterfall is somewhere between 89 and 92 ft and the third figure (101 ft) is incorrect. Of course I could be wrong. I don’t think so. What’s 12 feet difference anyway? Not much (unless you are a kayaker).

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.

Here is one more from the archives. Another view of Far Upper Canyon Creek Falls in the Trinity Alps. I just love that incredible green water color.

Don’t worry folks. It may be summer now. It may be hot. The snow may be all gone. But I have plenty of new waterfall images to post. Very soon. Lots and lots. Stay tuned.

This is the second weekend in a row I did not get out hiking. My excuse this week: sick in bed all weekend with a bad cold, monster stuffiness, killer sore throat, and a general overall feeling like my head has been put through a blender. Sigh.

Here is another shot of Upper Glen Alpine Falls from a couple weekends ago. Next weekend will be better for sure.

After watching that couple almost say goodbye to life at Lower Eagle Falls, I went up the trail to Upper Eagle Falls. It was getting late, past sunset, but I just had time to take a quick shot. I kinda wanted to spend more time here, see if I could get down closer to creek level, but it was getting late, the mosquitoes were coming out, and I needed to get back to the motel to see the family. Or else they might think it was me that went over the waterfall. Well, I did have quite a pleasant evening anyway.