Oregon waterfalls, part 1: Latourell to Wahkeena

by | Nov 1, 2008 | Travel

Latourell Falls. Our first waterfall of the trip and the height of this one was stunning. Little did we know that all the waterfalls along this stretch are very, very tall. We just don’t get that in North Carolina and Georgia. This one was an easy walk, but we had a bit of an adventure on the second one.

Upper Latourell Falls. The hike up to this one was moderately easy, we found ourselves heading uphill and downhill quite a bit throughout the day and I think the extra uphill walking on this one wore us out a little sooner than we would have liked. The path continued after this falls, so we thought (maybe) it was a loop back to the parking area. Not so much. Luckily, we found a log crossing the stream when we retraced our steps, so it saved us about 15 minutes of extra walking. Wow, am I making us sound lazy?  :)

Shepard’s Dell Falls. This photo is a shot of the upper portion of the falls. The whole falls was hard to shoot with all the trees around, but Eric managed to get this shot that showed off the fall color pretty well.

Bridal Veil Falls. This falls is reached after a short walk to a very lovely viewing spot. When we left, a family was posing for a photo on the boulder on the lower right. This is an HDR composite image, which was the only way to get the depth of contrast and color you see below.

Wahkeena Falls. One of the most easily accessible waterfalls in this area, you need to hike uphill for a quarter mile to get this shot. The bottom is overrun with people but there were only a few of us that made the trek to the upper part. Here is a shot of the entire length of the falls, which drops nearly 250 feet!

Tagged with: hiking | Oregon | Portland | waterfalls

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