Portland, Multnomah Falls, Wahclella Falls

This Mothers’ Day weekend both Bradley & Justus were coming with me to camp at Beacon Rock State Park and do two 8 mile peak-type hikes.  Justus was sick and getting worse by the time we got near the campground though, and it was pouring down rain to top things off, so we changed our plans and it turned out to be a wonderful weekend anyway! 

We stopped in the small town of Camas and looked for a room.  By now Justus had a fever and we had been on the road for 5 hours.  We ended up getting a nice discount on the honeymoon suite at the Camas Inn.  The people who run it are very nice, friendly, and genuinely care about their guests.  Cedar was allowed to stay too, for a nominal fee.  I was armed with a list of good places to eat, where I could get a late night pizza if I wished, treats and a dog bed for Cedar, and would have gotten free movie tickets if we were going to be in the area the next day.  The room was lovely… I wish I had had time to use the Jacuzzi tub!  They had a hotel cat… a big friendly black cat, and they were celebrating 100 yrs in business, which is pretty cool.  The town of Camas was charming as well.

The next morning Justus’ fever had come back down, but there was no way he was hiking 9 miles with 2000 ft of elevation gain.  We decided to go to Portland for the Saturday Market.  My best high school friend has a booth there where she sells her artisan lampwork glass.  She suggested a short hike she loves to Wahclella Falls about 40 mi east.  It sounded lovely, and Justus could handle that, so we went.

On the way there, I was really excited to see Multnomah Falls!  I hadn’t been there since I was little.  The boys and I took Adventure Dog and walked up the paved path.  There was a Sherlock Holmes group there, for possibly a funeral of some sort and they had a bagpiper, so our walk up to the higher bridge was accompanied by bagpiping oddly enough.  Multnomah is one of the tallest waterfalls in the U.S. with a total drop of over 600 feet for both the upper and lower falls combined.  Breathtaking!

After dining at the Multnomah Lodge, we were back on our way to Wahclella Falls.  This is a pretty easy 2 mile loop, although it was pretty muddy in places and seemed like some spring erosion had been recently repaired.  Wildflowers bloomed everywhere along the trail and stream we were following.

As we neared the falls, the sound was what really captivated me.  The frothing white water crashing down was beautiful, and they thundered powerfully sending billowing mist out at us.

  After passing the falls, we found a cave (hole) into the foot of the huge basalt cliff.  It appeared pretty solid but I would have preferred not to enter.  Bradley and Justus were both eager for a bit of spelunking, so we crawled in.  Yes, crawled.  It was muddy on the bottom and with sharp  gravel.  I think it went only about 50 or 60 feet in and just ended.  We went in about 40 feet, and it was so fun to see this cave cricket.  I think the phrases that were uttered were “please tell me that isn’t a spider” and “don’t shine your light around- I don’t want to see if there are more.”

After our short hike, we crossed the highway to the Bonneville Dam and fish hatcher y on the other side.  We didn’t view the dam, but enjoyed feeding monstrous rainbow trout, and viewed white sturgeon.  The largest they call Herman, and he is 10 feet long and 70 years old.  They can grow to 20 feet!  I like sturgeon.. they had kind of a sweet homely look and moved in both a ponderous and graceful way.  Adventure Dog likes sturgeon too.

This was a great Mothers’ Day weekend!  The only thing that would have made it better is if my Mom was there too!  : )