Multnomah Falls - May 29, 2025
Today, we set an alarm to get up early. We had a 9am recreation.gov Multnomah parking pass. This is a particular parking lot at exit 31, left exit because the parking lot is in the middle of interstate 84. They had other parking off of Historic Columbia hwy 30. 9am was the early reservation time; reservations were required between 9am and 6pm. It was a $2 recreation.gov fee only for the cost. What I could not find online is if you could come and get into the parking lot before 9am. The ticket did say to come during your 1 hour window (9am to 10am) and that you would have to wait if early. However, we were the first window where tickets were not required outside of the window. We gave it a try and arrived about 7:30am. The lot was open, and we parked. I did not print the reservation ticket because it noted that an electronic version was good. No one was collecting them at that time, so we just parked, did not use the ticket, and did not display it.
The parking between I-84 had an underground tunnel to Multnomah Falls and an underpass under the railroad tracks. The ever present train along the gorge and river. Though this is part of the history of the river. The river has to remain navigable, unlike some other rivers (comparing to other dams like Hoover and Glen Canyon). So, when the dams were build, Bonneville, The Dalles, etc. for flood control and electricity generation, they had to create locks to raise ships to the dam level and fish ladders for the fish to run and get back to the Pacific. Very interesting, more on the dams later. Below the train bridge, we found fish. Then we found the waterfall; okay, really you can see it from the road.
This is a very pretty and popular waterfall. We went to the viewing platform and then the bridge. Then we hiked to the top of the waterfall. This was a hard, uphill hike; there were signs saying Switchback 1 of 11. I have not seen switchback counts labeled before. Unlike yesterday, this was a rainy day. It was not too bad. I did wear a poncho later; others in our group did not. The rain or mist made the pictures look good and rainforest-y. We were now on the wet side of Oregon to later go to the dry side.
We found our first banana slug. We never found any in Washington (I did not know it was a goal then, but Travis mentioned it). This one had something that it was trailing along.
A look down from the top.
The source of Multnomah Falls, thinking of on Top Gear where their challenge was to find the source of the River Nile. Joel at the "real" upper Multnomah Falls; the long one is really the middle falls -- hehe.
A view down to the river and a lake.
We stopped by visitor center, gift shop, and restroom. There was also a coffee stand. As we were leaving, a bus/coach full of people were piling into the gift shop; it did not have that kind of room for everyone. We waited forever just trying to get out. Good thing they went for the gift shop instead of the restrooms. The gift shop had many things with different names on them for sale. They had really cute sea turtles and bear with a salmon in its mouth and cool art made of different hardware pieces.
Then we went to Horsetail and Ponytail Falls, finding parking without an issue at this no fee state park. This was another tough uphill hike.
Ponytail Falls - you could walk behind the waterfall.
Cool growths or discolorations on the rocks in the cave behind Ponytail Falls.
I thought the moss overgrowth on the trail wall was cool.
Next, we stopped at Oneonta Tunnel; the Oneonta gorge trail was closed. Looking like a slot canyon, it would have been a cool hike. A picture of what we could see below. The tunnel used to be part of the Historic Columbia highway 30 (to the left now in the picture) until cars got too big. They originally sealed the tunnel up and then decided to rebuild it. All the graffiti or defacing inside was from like 2020 or newer, which felt weird.
Finally, we were off to lunch. We went to Troutdale Taco, which was a longer drive back west toward Portland than I hoped, maybe 25 minutes. I had planned this for the first day, but it would have been too late after Walmart. The kids each had a huge burrito. I ordered the same as Travis, not knowing what to order. We had a beef taco called the VW and an Al Pastor. I liked the beef but did not like the Al Pastor too much; I liked them in Mexico. Travis liked both.
This was near the restaurant.
After being well feed, we stopped at the Lewis and Clark State Recreation Site that we saw on the way into to Troutdale. It has a botanical garden walk with plant labels. I liked the rocks in the moss in this picture. They found more banana slugs that they had to "pet". The slugs were not a fans of being petted; they retracted their antenna and mouth parts into their body, interesting.
On the way back east, we stopped at Rooster State Park at exit 25. It was a pay state park. With our campsites, it was published, on the Oregon State Park website where booking the camping, that we could visit any State Park using the campsite purchase as the pass for the days camped. So, I printed the camping reservation info to put in the windshield for this purpose. The sign at the entrance station did not mention this and did not have anyone working it to ask, so we were unsure. We did go in and drive around. It was primarily for boating and boat launch access; this park had tons and tons of parking lots lining the river. It was very bazaar; I do not know when they would have ever needed that much parking. We got out for just a bit. We found an osprey flying over the river, and a squirrel showing off, playing in the sand.
We then went back to campsite. We found multiple big snails that came out after the rain today.
I forgot, but we sandwiches at the campsite last night for dinner and had Rico nacho with tortilla chips tonight. It was cold sleeping in the tent tonight. I was surprised that kids said that they were not too cold since they have 50 degree sleeping bags, and I had a 30 degree one. I gave them extra layers that they never wore. Later, I took and wore them on expected cooler nights (43 degrees).
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