Oneonta & Latourell Falls

Today I took Julie and her friend Jill on some hikes up in the Columbia Gorge. We also took Jill’s cute dog Lou who almost has as much energy as McKenzie but a little bit smaller. Neither girl had really seen the Columbia Gorge yet so I really enjoyed introducing them to it. I purposely chose light hikes to save Julie’s knees. For the first hike we headed in at Horsetail Falls towards Oneonta gorge and the Ponytail falls there. We then took a trail extension to also check out Triple Falls further up the Gorge. Lou ran ahead of us the whole way lovin’ it. We got to walk along cliffs high above the historic Columbia Gorge highway. At one cliff I accidentally pulled a 10$ bill Julie gave me out of my pocket and watched it roll off the edge and barely come to a stop before falling. I got down and my belly and was able to retrieve it again… barely.
After the first hike we stopped at Multinomah Falls so the girls could check out the 2nd highest year-round waterfall in the country. We got some coffee and pastries there before continuing on to Latourell Falls to the West. This hike was much shorter than the 1st hike and we were able to get up to Upper Latourell Falls in just half an hour or so. On the way down from the top of the Latourell falls I found a great tree to climb (click the title). On the way back we took a nice loop hike down into the river gorge to the base of the incredibly tall Latourell Falls. It was so tall I could barely fit the whole waterfall into the frame of my camera.
On the way home we stopped at Vista House which is a beautiful historical monument high up on a cliff over the Columbia River. I'd seen it a bunch of times from I-84 but being inside the stained-glass, marble wonder was a amzing. We also stopped at a liqour store so Julie could buy some ingredients for Kristen Splinter's Canadian Thanksgiving. Click the title for a great slideshow of hte waterfalls of the hike.... 5 in all.