Rainbow Falls, Multnomah Falls, Munrah Falls, and Wahclella Falls

We took a trip down to Portland at the beginning of April so that I could audition for the Portland Opera outreach program. I didn't get the part (though I did get some really good feedback and encouragement from the judges), but I wasn't really expecting to since it didn't fit my voice. However, it did give us an excellent excuse to check out some of the many beautiful Columbia Gorge waterfalls.

I'd never been to Portland in the spring, but I'd always wanted to since that's when waterfalls are at full force. The spray was everywhere! It was actually really difficult to take pictures since the lens kept getting wet. I think early summer might be the better time to see waterfalls. They're nearly at their peak without the spray preventing you from getting good pictures.

As you pass Olympia traveling south on I-5, there's a sign for a Rainbow Falls state park about 15 miles west. Since we'd passed the sign several times on previous trips, and since I love waterfalls, I wanted to make sure we stopped there this time.

What a huge mistake. This was the waterfall. Boring! I kept double checking the map to make sure I hadn't missed the real waterfall somewhere. I don't know how anyone could ever define this little rapid as a waterfall. It was a complete waste of time, and I can't believe I traveled 30 miles out of my way to see it. This review from pnwhikes.com sums it up perfectly.

"Rainbow Falls might possibly be the most disappointing waterfall in the Pacific Northwest. The falls occur within the Chehalis River where it intersects a low bench of basalt and skips about 5 feet downward in a gradual slide. The feature resembles more of a rapid than a waterfall (at high water this is a much more obvious trait), but the reason its such a big disappointment is the presence of the surrounding Rainbow Falls State Park. I suppose there may have not been anything else to name the park for, but that the state graced the park with the falls' monitor will undoubtedly mislead some people."

I was so disappointed by that pathetic excuse for a waterfall that I insisted we go to Multnomah Falls before we check out any others we hadn't seen before. I knew that at least that would be gorgeous.

Above is the view of the upper falls from the bridge, and below is the view looking down on the lower falls from the same bridge. There's a story listed near the falls that a wedding party was taking pictures on the bridge when a huge boulder fell into the pool. The resulting wave soaked the entire party. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but that would be a terrible thing to happen on your wedding day! Hopefully they can laugh it off by now.

What an amazing view of the falls just from the parking lot!

While at the Multnomah Falls visitor's center, we bought an incredibly useful book called "Waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest" by Gregory Plumb. I wish I'd had this book 5 years ago when we moved to Washington. Thanks to its contents we picked a nearby hike to see two other Columbia Gorge waterfalls - Munra Falls and Wahclella Falls.

You come upon Munra Falls fairly soon after beginning the hike to Wahclella Falls. It's a not a terribly impressive waterfall, but it's pretty cool to walk right next to it and touch it.

There were several small waterfalls along the way that I'm sure only exist during the spring.

We liked these nifty grottos.

And finally we arrived at beautiful Wahclella Falls.

It's cool how the falls are being fed both from an upper cascade and a side cascade.

We also passed little East Fork Falls on our way back.

There were several cool river rapids we passed on our way back. We laughed about how any of them were better than Rainbow Falls State park. Now whenever we see a pretty rapid we say "hey, it's Rainbow Falls."

Wallace Falls

I can't mention enough how happy I am that we purchased the book "Waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest" by Gregory Plumb. Though I often disagree with his rating system for difficulty of hikes and beauty of waterfalls, this book has been immeasurably useful to us and helped us find dozens of gorgeous waterfalls that we would have never known existed.

I knew about Snoqualmie Falls, Twin Falls, and a few others, but I hadn't heard much about a gorgeous one about 45 minutes away from me called "Wallace Falls." Yes, I had seen the sign on US 2 that directs you to "Wallace Falls State Park," but not all waterfalls with a sign are worth seeing. We went to one outside Olympia signed as "Rainbow Falls State Park," and I have no idea how anyone could possibly define it as a falls. It's not picturesque at all and the 5 foot drop is barely even noticeable. It was definitely not worth going an additional 30 miles out of our way to see (this review on pnwhikes sums it up perfectly. Wallace Falls, on the other hand, is spectacular. The main drop is stunning, and there are 9 total along the river. It's a 5.5 mile hike round trip to all of them, and the picture above is the first falls you see. It's appropriately named "Small Falls."

Here's a pic of me crossing the first bridge.

And a pic of picturesque lower falls.

From lower falls you can see middle falls in the distance. You actually can find a similar view of middle falls from US 2, but you really have to do the hike to fully appreciate its beauty.

And here is stunning middle falls!

These two drops can be overlooked from lower falls. I guess they're lower, lower falls and lower, lower, lower falls!

As you climb higher you can begin to see better and better views of the Skykomish Valley.

Here's a pic of the top of middle falls' drop.

We typically only hike on Oscar's days off, but since this hike was only about a 50 minute drive away, I was unwilling to wait for a clear Monday. Our Spring was terrible this year, and the few clear days we had were not on Mondays. A beautiful, warm, clear Wednesday arrived and I insisted we do the hike before Oscar had to go to work.

I'm glad we waited until it was clear since we had some lovely views of the valley.

And at the end of the hike you arrive at Upper Falls.

Here's a pic of me with my hair wet from the spray of the waterfall.

And some pretty views we saw on our way back down. I celebrated this gorgeous hike by twisting my ankle on the descent. It hurt for several days, but it was worth it for such a pretty hike. You can pass the waterfalls and continue hiking to Wallace Lake, but we didn't have time, the trail's not as well marked, and they've had several people get lost. Maybe we'll do it someday and bring a GPS with us.

Otter, Marten, Big Creek Falls

Oscar named his team at work "Oscar's Otters," so when we found out there was a waterfall near us called "Otter Falls," he insisted we hike to it. It was about 8.5 miles round trip, and our waterfall book gave it a "hard" rating for difficulty, but it really wasn't steep at all. We didn't even break a sweat.

The trail, on the other hand, was terrible. It was very poorly maintained, we had to cross several small streams, there was quite a bit of snow left even in the middle of May, there were several rocks and boulders to get through, and a lot of foot twisting kept happening from walking on top of all the rocks and ridges along the trail. It was marked as the Snoqualmie Lake trail, not the Taylor Creek of Otter Falls trail like we were expecting, and the signs leading up to it on the road weren't clear at all. And to top it all off, we had to drive 12 miles each way on the worst pothole-filled road I have ever been on. Thank goodness the waterfalls were pretty.

The trail crosses Marten Creek Falls, Otter Falls, and Big Creek Falls, but some people have reported hiking the entire trail and not seeing the first 2 falls. I'm not surprised since they are very easy to miss because you have to bushwack up the side hills in order to see the main drops. There are no signs whatsoever telling you where you have to leave the trail to find them. Fortunately we had our book "Waterfall Lovers Guide to the Pacific Northwest," by Gregory Plumb, which at least gave us a general idea of where we should start bushwacking.

This base of Marten Creek falls is the only part you can see if you don't leave the main trail.

These two drops are worth leaving the trail for, but they're difficult to see and photograph. All 3 falls along this trail remind of of water slides in the way the water falls lightly against the rocks.

And just pass Marten Creek Falls, you scramble up a steep hill and encounter Otter Falls. This is much, much larger than it appears in the photo. It could be Paul Bunyan's water slide! It's close to 800 feet tall. The water level was a bit low (which was surprising since we visited in the spring), but it was still really cool to see. We sat down on a rock, ate lunch, and just stared up at the falls.

These were some of the views we saw as we continued to Big Creek Falls.

We liked some of these small cascades close to the trail. We called them "Cute Falls."

Our waterfall book author said this falls paled in comparison to its previous counterparts, but we still really liked it. It actually had the greatest flow of them all, and it was by far the easiest to see and get close to.

Here's another "Cute Falls" from our way back. Sometimes we call them "Fairy Falls" if it reminds us of a waterfall that would be significant to a fairy.

And we liked these yellow wildflowers we saw throughout the trail. They sprung up in the most random places.