Leon Turnbull Photography

After my morning jaunt to Multnomah Falls at sunrise, I went back to the motel to collect my wife and kids and dog. We had a quick breakfast at Shari’s restaurant (no, the dog did not go into the restaurant), then scooted on up the road to the Eagle Creek trailhead, where we met Ara, a friend and fellow waterfall hunter who lives in the Portland area. I have to say, if you are a waterfall hunter, this is probably the best place in the world to live. She’s got it made. Anyway, we hiked up to Punch Bowl Falls, but the light was very harsh at that time of morning. Then we hiked back, had some lunch, and then made the short hike up to Elowah Falls.

One thing about the Columbia River Gorge area is that there seems to be a lot of car break-ins here. We saw quite a bit of smashed glass in parking lots, there were warning signs everywhere, and Ara even told us to park at the furthest lot at Eagle Creek trailhead, to avoid a possible break-in there. Interesting. That kind of thing seems to be a much bigger problem there, then here in California. It is rather upsetting, actually. Also, after eating at Shari’s, I went back to the car and while I was waiting for my family, a big black guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted to buy this gold watch that he showed me, for dirt cheap. Umm, who sells an expensive watch to someone for dirt cheap, in a parking lot? It sure looked stolen to me. I told him, emphatically, “no thanks!”.

Back to hiking … my son Jadon did very well hiking all day long. I was quite proud of him. Nekoda, who was carried on the Eagle Creek hike, decided she wanted to walk on the hike to Elowah Falls. Well, it is a bit steep on the hike up there, so I carried her to the top of the hill, then let her walk down to the falls from the top. She hiked all the way back on the return trip. She did great.

Elowah Falls was at very low flow. It was so low, that it was just blowing all over the place in the wind. It reminded me of Bridalveil Falls at Yosemite in low flow. When it was really blowing, it seemed as though it just disappeared in mid air before it got to the ground. It is rather difficult to take a photo of a waterfall blowing around like crazy. I was pretty surprised my photos came out half decent. I wasn’t expecting them to. This shot is taken from a “somewhat” secret off-the-path location a bit downstream from the bridge, which Ara took me down to see. I think you get a slightly better perspective of the waterfall from this location.

Of course, for any tourist, the mandatory stop at the Columbia River Gorge is Multnomah Falls, the jewel of the Gorge, towering over everything at 611 ft. high. Although widely advertised as being the 2nd highest year-round waterfall in the entire U.S. (or the 4th highest in the nation), it is nowhere near that. There are plenty of waterfalls higher than Multnomah. Nonetheless, it is magnificent. And it is a zoo. We came here in the evening around sunset and there were just far too many people around to take a decent photo of the waterfall. It was a bit of a bummer because the sunset light on the waterfall was really nice, but I didn’t even bother taking my tripod out of the car, and I only took photos of my family. Well, I did want to get a photo of Multnomah Falls, so I came here the next morning at sunrise. What a difference. There was no one else around at all, and I had the waterfall all to myself. It is wonderful to experience a great waterfall all to yourself with no one else around. One other couple did arrive a bit later and went up on the bridge and into my photo, but I did manage to get in a couple shots before they arrived. This is a high resolution 25 mega-pixel stitched image.

On a somewhat related note, I just finished reading a book called “The Shack” by William Young. It is very popular in Christian circles right now, and also controversial because it has some theological problems with it. I am not going to get into that. The reason I am bringing it up, though, is because the book is really centered around a waterfall, Multnomah Falls to be exact (I know I am stretching that to the utmost extreme). The book talks about the legend of Multnomah Falls, where a young princess of the Multnomah people sacrificed herself by jumping off the cliff here and thus saving her people and lover from a horrible disease. You can read the entire legend here. The legend really has many striking similarities to the very real sacrifice that Jesus made for all of us, when He died on the cross to save us all from eternal death.

Well, that is probably enough rambling for today. Have a good one.

Back to Canada. After my early morning jaunt to Perry Creek Falls, I noticed that the clouds were becoming quite overcast and it was threatening to rain. The weather was pretty crazy the whole time we were up in Canada this year, and changing constantly. Overcast skies are a great time to shoot waterfalls, so I figured it would be perfect to go to Marysville Falls before it started to rain. I stopped off at my sister’s house, asking if anyone wanted to come with me. I had two takers: my wife and my 3 year old daughter, Nekoda.

My sister lives in Wycliffe. It was overcast in Wycliffe and threatening to rain. Marysville Falls is in the small town of (you guessed it), Marysville, which is only a 10 minute drive up the highway. In Marysville, it was completely sunny! What the heck happened to all those clouds? I really couldn’t figure it out at all. I thought, oh great, I’m gonna have to come back to this one again, to get good light on the falls. But anyway, we made the little hike down to the waterfall since we were there. Marysville Falls is located right in the middle of the town, you can’t miss it, it is well-signed, and there is a short, easy, boardwalk leading down the creek until you reach the viewpoint of the waterfall. My 3 year old had no trouble at all on this short walk.

When we got to the waterfall, it was actually still in shade. My wife said, “hey honey, the waterfall is in shade. That’s good, right?”. I was already quickly setting up my camera gear. I answered, “yes, but it won’t last for long”. The sun was already starting to peak through the trees, and it wouldn’t be long before it started to hit the falls. I managed to get in a couple nice shots before that happened. Now I wouldn’t have to come back to this one later.

Marysville Falls is an interesting one. It is “officially” listed as being 100 feet high. There is no way it is even close to that height. I measured it at 45 ft. high, which seems a much more reasonable figure. How do you get 100 feet from this one ? Geepers. Sounds like a big marketing scam directed at tourists. The other thing is, people jump off this waterfall. If it was 100 ft. high, no one would be jumping off it. I don’t really understand how anyone would jump off this falls anyway, no matter what its height is. It “looks high”, too high to be jumping. Plus, the canyon walls are very steep, and I don’t know how you’d climb back up once you were down at the bottom of the waterfall. I think maybe that people somehow climb down the canyon walls and jump off from a lower point, and then somehow climb back up. Seems pretty crazy to me.

Another interesting tidbit I learned about the town of Marysville from my sister is this … it is historically the location of the largest lead and zinc mine in the world, operated by Cominco. In past years, Cominco did a great job of polluting the town from its mining operations, sometimes dumping sludge and pollutants into the creek while people were swimming in it. Apparently, the soil around town is still polluted, and you don’t want to necessarily be eating vegetables that your kindly neighbor gives you from their garden. This is just stuff my sister told me. I couldn’t verify any of it, but it is probably true. Despite this tidbit, the town does seem to be well cleaned up now.

Because we were able to arrive at the Columbia River Gorge a few hours earlier than planned, I said that I was able to see a few additional waterfalls that I had not anticipated. One stop we made was at the Starvation Creek Falls picnic area.

Starvation Creek Falls itself is a pretty neat and very tall waterfall. I managed to pick up some good ol’ poison oak while photographing that one. Gee, and I thought I was done with getting that stuff for the year. Not quite, my dear Leon! After that, I hiked up about a mile to Hole In The Wall Falls and Lancaster Falls. Hole In The Wall Falls is a neat, unique looking waterfall no doubt, and I really like the form of this falls, but it is not so easy to photograph because of how it is set back in the canyon wall. If I moved any more to the left, the top of the falls would be cut off, and any further to the right and the bottom would be cut off. I think I got it just about right.

When I first arrived at the waterfall, there was a group of people sitting around right at the pool in front of the falls. It would’ve been difficult taking a photo with all those people there. I decided to scoot up to Lancaster Falls first. When I got there, a family of hikers arrived coming down from the mountain. They had trouble controlling their two kids who wanted to get in front of my picture, and one of them even knocked herself into my camera. I didn’t spend much time there because of them. I then whipped on back to Hole In The Wall Falls. The group at the pool was gone, so I was able to get my photo without too much hassle. But that family was there again, and waiting for me to move out of the way. So again, I didn’t spend too much time here either. Ah well, it was time to get on to Wahclella Falls anyway.

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.