Falling in Love with Hiking in Oregon

Like Elvis sang, "I can't help falling in love with hiking in Oregon." Ok, maybe I got the lyrics a little bit wrong, but I am known for being good at that. The truth is it is gorgeous in the mountains here. (Get it "Gorge"ous, Columbia River Gorge?) And that is just where we hiked today. We picked this hike for two reasons. First, it is close and we didn't want to wake up early on Bill's day off. Second, the kids really wanted to do a hike behind a waterfall and this hike included that opportunity. This time we headed west of Multnomah Falls and parked at the Horsetail Falls trail head. Our first big payoff was only about a 1/2 mile up the trail where we landed at Ponytail Falls. This is the fall that the trail runs behind. The boys thought this was amazingly cool, and it was. We "oohhhed" and "aahhhed" for a few minutes and kept hiking up another mile to Oneonta Falls. Amazingly, it doesn't feel like "seen one falls, seen them all" as they are all so stunning and unique. Another few minutes to take it all in and then another mile up we topped off at Triple Falls.


We stopped, ate lunch, hiked across the log bridge, then hiked over to a wonderful viewpoint that gave us a stunning panorama of all three falls and the bridge in the background. It was overcast today, but didn't rain. It could not have been more than 70 degrees, but because of the humid air, we all came back to the car drenched in sweat that just wouldn't evaporate. It is odd to not feel hot, but be that sweaty. The whole shibang was about 5 miles, just about the same length as our Multnomah Falls loop, but with only 1/2 the elevation gain, it seemed much more enjoyable- still working, but with some areas of flat as a respite from the climbing. On the other loop, the uphill never took a break from kicking our rear ends. All said and done, it was a wonderful way to spend a good chunk of our day, get a little exercise and see some of the most beautiful vistas I have ever experienced.