Is that Bigfoot? Like for real? Sasquatch does live in Oregon, right? Those coniferous forests are perfect homes for these legendary creatures. Maybe we'd get lucky. Maybe we already did.
Nope! This one's unfortunately not real. He's made of wood. But since we are on the subject and we haven't really started this blog post in earnest yet, I do believe in bigfoot. I know that might make me sound a little crazy but I'm half convinced I've seen one in real life. And hey, I've already admitted I believe in aliens in another post on this blog so why not double down. For what it's worth I believe in ghosts and some sort of afterlife too. All nuts, I know. But I'm completely serious. Completely.
Back to my Bigfoot encounter. It was in the early 1990s and my friend Nick and I were driving down to Philadelphia from Syracuse, NY where we were just hanging out on summer break working in the Salt City. When we were somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania on Interstate 81, something dark and furry (or was it hairy?) crossed the road in front of us and climbed over the barrier in the middle of the highway. Climbed!!!! Nick said it was a dog but there's absolutely no way. Dogs don't climb. I think it was a Sasquatch. Either that or a bear. I think Sasquatch sounds better. I believe. Completely.
Other than the wooden one above, we didn't find any unexplained creatures in the woods of Oregon. But we did deliberately head into the forest as part of a planned day out to see the Columbia River and the trails and waterfalls that make up the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, an historic 50 mile or so stretch of nature connected by roadways and featuring stop after stop of gorgeous hikes and photo opportunities of the Oregon wild at its finest. Who could miss this? Plus...Bigfoot. You never know.
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| First no boats on Crater Lake and now this? Oregon and nature don't like me for some reason. |
With the help of my Lonely Planet Washington / Oregon guidebook, I had the day planned out perfectly. It was going to be awesome. I figured a couple of stops at some of the more easily accessible waterfalls like the 250 foot high Latourell Falls and almost as high Elowah Falls along with a look and a hike to the top of (it's only a mile...) Multnomah Falls, the signature waterfall along the Columbia River Gorge and apparently the most visited outdoor site in the entire state of Oregon. It was shaping up to be a maximum bang for minimum effort day. Well, minimum effort if you ignore the mile hike to the top of the 620 foot high Multnomah; that one would be a lot of climbing up, although less extreme than the Cleetwood Cove trail we tackled (and conquered) a couple of days earlier at Crater Lake.
Like all prepared travelers, I double checked that we knew exactly where we were headed the night before so we'd be as efficient as we could be and maybe we'd be able to sneak in an afternoon trip to a Portland brewery. And that's when the news that wasn't in my Lonely Planet guide hit me: there was a massive wildfire throughout the Gorge in the fall of 2017 and pretty much everything was closed, even Multnomah, although we would still be able to see those falls from the parking lot in the center of I-84. Crushed!
Last fall the wildfires in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco got a ton of national media attention and I guess deservedly so. After all, here was a major populated area of the United States at risk of getting burned to the ground after an extremely dry summer. More likely, the coverage was related to the popularity of the Valley as a tourist destination. Turns out there were other fires raging (as there are every year) that posed just as much trouble, but maybe not to as many permanent residents in as heavily visited an area of the country.
While those fires were threatening wineries in northern California last fall, the Eagle Creek Fire was doing damage to the forests along the Oregon-Washington border. Only more so. The fire (called the Tubbs Fire) that burned Napa was the most destructive in California history; it burned for about a month and took out almost 37,000 acres. Eagle Creek? Three months and 50,000 acres, although six months after it was contained there were still some areas smoldering.
If there's one personal awareness that got raised in a major way on this trip, it was about wildfires. These things are common as anything out west and they put people's lives in danger on a regular basis, and I don't just mean the folks whose houses are in the ways of the blaze. Over on the east coast of the United States, we get some coverage but either it's just about destinations popular with tourists or I just don't pay that much attention to it and I'm honestly not sure which one it is.
Like all prepared travelers, I double checked that we knew exactly where we were headed the night before so we'd be as efficient as we could be and maybe we'd be able to sneak in an afternoon trip to a Portland brewery. And that's when the news that wasn't in my Lonely Planet guide hit me: there was a massive wildfire throughout the Gorge in the fall of 2017 and pretty much everything was closed, even Multnomah, although we would still be able to see those falls from the parking lot in the center of I-84. Crushed!
Last fall the wildfires in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco got a ton of national media attention and I guess deservedly so. After all, here was a major populated area of the United States at risk of getting burned to the ground after an extremely dry summer. More likely, the coverage was related to the popularity of the Valley as a tourist destination. Turns out there were other fires raging (as there are every year) that posed just as much trouble, but maybe not to as many permanent residents in as heavily visited an area of the country.
While those fires were threatening wineries in northern California last fall, the Eagle Creek Fire was doing damage to the forests along the Oregon-Washington border. Only more so. The fire (called the Tubbs Fire) that burned Napa was the most destructive in California history; it burned for about a month and took out almost 37,000 acres. Eagle Creek? Three months and 50,000 acres, although six months after it was contained there were still some areas smoldering.
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| We walked by lots of burned wood on our hikes through the Columbia River Gorge last month. |
In addition to tracking the Tubbs Fire last October (since we'd already made reservations for our Napa trip) and having our schedule seemingly wrecked by the Eagle Creek Fire, we drove by a couple of wildfires on our way by and through Lassen Volcanic National Park towards our destination of Redding for an overnight stop. And by "drove by" I mean we probably passed within two or three miles of a fire burning just south of Lassen. We actually saw the helicopters fighting the fires from above and traveled past fire-retardant sprayed as fire breaks on the surface of the Earth.
That maybe 15 minutes of driving that brought us close enough to the smoke to worry was a little alarming. Some of the alarm was for our personal safety but most of it was for the teams of firefighters we saw posted along the roads we drove that afternoon. Here we are on vacation driving in a car along fire free roads looking at smoke rising a couple of miles away. These men and women are standing along the side of the road waiting for the fire to get to them so they can try to put it out. Crazy brave.
Some of these fires are unavoidable. They are started by lightning strikes in areas that haven't had water for months. Others are way avoidable. While the Tubbs Fire was probably caused by some sort of electrical sparking (which is maybe in the unavoidable category?), the Eagle Creek Fire was apparently started by a 15 year old playing with fireworks. Crazy when we do stuff like this that makes firefighters waiting for fires to get to them. Even if they never come face to face with the flames they are still loaded with heavy gear in 80 or 90 degree heat.
With Latourell and Elowah Falls out of commission, it was time to figure out an alternate game plan.
That maybe 15 minutes of driving that brought us close enough to the smoke to worry was a little alarming. Some of the alarm was for our personal safety but most of it was for the teams of firefighters we saw posted along the roads we drove that afternoon. Here we are on vacation driving in a car along fire free roads looking at smoke rising a couple of miles away. These men and women are standing along the side of the road waiting for the fire to get to them so they can try to put it out. Crazy brave.
Some of these fires are unavoidable. They are started by lightning strikes in areas that haven't had water for months. Others are way avoidable. While the Tubbs Fire was probably caused by some sort of electrical sparking (which is maybe in the unavoidable category?), the Eagle Creek Fire was apparently started by a 15 year old playing with fireworks. Crazy when we do stuff like this that makes firefighters waiting for fires to get to them. Even if they never come face to face with the flames they are still loaded with heavy gear in 80 or 90 degree heat.
With Latourell and Elowah Falls out of commission, it was time to figure out an alternate game plan.
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| Bridal Veil Falls. |
The point of this day out was to get an appreciation of the Columbia River. I've seen the Mississippi River on a number of occasions and have never been impressed. Yes, the Mississippi is the largest river in the United States but the context around it lacks romance; it's just all flat on both sides. I hoped the Columbia would be different, especially considering we were heading into a gorge flanked by mountains up to 4,000 feet in height at some points along its 80 mile length.
The point of the day was not necessarily to go view a bunch of waterfalls, despite our original and revised itineraries featuring three falls each. I've seen Niagara and I've seen Vic Falls and I know that I am not necessarily a waterfalls guy. But sometimes the power of water falling over a cliff of some sort is incredibly impressive (read: Niagara Falls from the Canadian side). Maybe we'd see something good.
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| Multnomah Falls. Definitely the falls highlight of the day. |
First of all, Multnomah Falls is spectacular. This two-tier waterfall dropping more than 600 feet was definitely the most impressive falls we saw on the day. We also got lucky here. Not only was the Lodge open as we had read but they had also just opened the bridge that crosses right in front of the upper section that very day that we visited. The trail that I had hoped to take to the top of the Falls was not open, however. Too bad, because continuing on despite what looked like a very steep trail in parts promised more amazing views of the Falls.
We managed to talk to some Forest Service staff on the bridge who felt that the earliest some of the closed trails would be open might be this fall, that is if they ever opened again. She was not just speaking about Multnomah but about all the trails in the Gorge. Seems like it's going to be a while before this place is back to normal, whatever that might be. I did note right before publishing this post that Latourell Falls is at least partially accessible.
Multnomah was the centerpiece of our day. Quite literally. It was the middle stop between the two state parks we had selected. Before we stopped at Multnomah we headed all the way east past it on I-84 to visit Starvation Creek State Park. This Park is about as uncomplicated a place as you can get. It simply links the exit for the park to the following exit a mile further east down the interstate. There's a paved path running up along the banks above the highway all the way.
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| Starvation Falls. Or at least what we saw when we first got there. |
We took one look at the falls here at the beginning of our hike, decided there was not much to look at and kept going. On our way back we decided to take the right (which on the way back is a left) to get a better look and see if there was more than our first glance indicated. It's a good thing we did. The first falls we saw weren't the Starvation Creek Falls at all. Walk a few hundred feet up the path and you'll get to the real falls and they are pretty fantastic at an overall height of about 225 feet. The view is somewhat obscured but considering the distance from the parking lot, this is about as gorgeous a waterfall as you can see with as short a walk as this from where you left your car. Definitely worth the trip.
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| The real Starvation Creek Falls. Seen between two charred trees. |
Of course, if you wanted to make a quicker day of things, you could just skip the longest part of our day in the Columbia River Gorge and skip Starvation Creek Falls. After all, it is a full 20 plus miles further out than even Multnomah. That's perhaps a long way to go for just one fall that isn't quite fully visible. If you did, though, you would miss why I went out there in the first place.
Well, kind of. We went all the way out to Starvation Creek because we hoped it would be beyond the reach of the Eagle Creek Fire. It wasn't. We went out in the first place to get a good look at the Columbia River, not necessarily a bunch of waterfalls, and heading all the way as far east as we did got us that, although we didn't know that would happen before we set out.
About a quarter to a half mile into the one mile (each way) hike at Starvation Creek Falls, someone has created a makeshift path up the hillside on the left side of the trail. There's a tree there that the path winds around which serves as a handhold to clamber up the hill. It was up there that we found what I thought was the best view of the Columbia. And it was pretty awesome.
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| Our best view of the Columbia. Going off path sometimes is the right way to go. |
It seems strange and a lot melodramatic to me to write an entire (long) blog post about one view of one river but that's really honestly mostly what this one is about. That picture above. And maybe the one below also taken at Starvation Creek Falls just a bit closer to the parking lot. We stopped at a couple of places on our way back to Portland to see if we could duplicate the view we had in these two pictures but with zero success, not even at the Cascade Locks Waterfront Grill, where you can find an amazing but not quite equal unobstructed view of the Columbia while eating lunch at your table next to a wooden carved Sasquatch. Seriously, I'd hit that place up if I were planning another trip down the Columbia.
Admittedly, Multnomah Falls is just amazing. And if we could have hiked to the top this whole post might have been about something totally different. But we couldn't. In a lot of ways this trip brought a lot of things together that I've written about like powerful rivers and beautiful waterfalls and the perils of wildfires along with some things that I haven't written about like the First Nations people like the Coast Salish and global warming and its effect on the snow melt that forms the waterfalls like Multnomah and Bridal Veil and Starvation Creek and all the others off limits which we couldn't visit. Sometimes days out when we travel end up being about a lot of things but what's most memorable is sometimes crystalized in a single image or two.
This was not the day out we planned. I thought I had everything figured out perfectly before we left. I can't imagine that my original itinerary would have gotten us a better day. I certainly wouldn't have seen my favorite view of the Columbia or got this close to finding Bigfoot, even if he did end up being wooden. Sometimes the best things for us on vacation are our plans getting turned a little bit upside down. Don't misunderstand me, I don't want this to happen too often. But this day, it worked out.
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| One more view of the Columbia. Less river but perhaps better framed. |
How We Did It
All three waterfalls that we visited are accessible right off I-84 and all are reachable within about an hour or less drive from Portland, assuming you don't get stuck in rush hour traffic (or non-rush hour traffic) on the way out of town.
Starvation Creek State Park is open year round on a day use (meaning no overnight camping) basis. You can get to it by taking Exit 55 off I-84 eastbound (but not westbound) which serves nothing more than the Park parking lot. The falls are a very quick walk if you don't ignore their existence like we did at first. You can exit the parking lot back on to I-84 East; head back to Portland (if that's where you are coming from) by traveling a mile further to Exit 56 and turning around.
Multnomah Falls is also open year round, although the Visitor Center is only open from 9 am to 5 pm each day. There is a good sized parking lot right in the center of I-84 which is accessible from the eastbound and westbound lanes. The parking lot was packed when we were there but people were leaving pretty regularly. Apparently there are gates that close when the lot is full. We stood in a line maybe 15 cars long and got a spot after just 15 minutes or so. The Falls are visible after a quick walk under the eastbound lanes of the interstate.
Bridal Veil Falls State Scenic Viewpoint is open year round and also on a day use basis like Starvation Creek. Take Exit 28 off I-84 and travel about 3/4 of a mile or so on the Historic Columbia River Scenic Highway to get to the very small parking area. Follow the signs to the Falls from the parking lot.
The best part about all this: it's all free!
Starvation Creek State Park is open year round on a day use (meaning no overnight camping) basis. You can get to it by taking Exit 55 off I-84 eastbound (but not westbound) which serves nothing more than the Park parking lot. The falls are a very quick walk if you don't ignore their existence like we did at first. You can exit the parking lot back on to I-84 East; head back to Portland (if that's where you are coming from) by traveling a mile further to Exit 56 and turning around.
Multnomah Falls is also open year round, although the Visitor Center is only open from 9 am to 5 pm each day. There is a good sized parking lot right in the center of I-84 which is accessible from the eastbound and westbound lanes. The parking lot was packed when we were there but people were leaving pretty regularly. Apparently there are gates that close when the lot is full. We stood in a line maybe 15 cars long and got a spot after just 15 minutes or so. The Falls are visible after a quick walk under the eastbound lanes of the interstate.
Bridal Veil Falls State Scenic Viewpoint is open year round and also on a day use basis like Starvation Creek. Take Exit 28 off I-84 and travel about 3/4 of a mile or so on the Historic Columbia River Scenic Highway to get to the very small parking area. Follow the signs to the Falls from the parking lot.
The best part about all this: it's all free!
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