Pacific Northwest - Columbia River Gorge and Mt. Hood

After Portland, we made our way over to the Columbia River Gorge for some all day hiking. We spend a whole day hiking the gorge, and then headed down to the Mt. Hood and surrounding areas the next day.
Our first hike in the gorge was the Multnomah - Wahkeena Loop Hike that looped us around 5 waterfalls in 5 miles.


Fairy falls was the second waterfall on the hike, and one of my favorites. I love how it splits out like a fan. The slow shutter really emphasized this.





The hike itself was great, filled with tons of trees, moss, and just green everywhere. Here are a few shots of a river winding through some of the moss:




Look who also got the photo bug and decided to snap some pictures:


One of the last falls on the loop hike was Weisendanger falls. By this time the sun was above us, so I wanted to get it peaking through the clouds, catching the mist from the falls:




I did get a few of Multnomah falls, but it was so crowded by the time we finished the loop that I didn't feel like breaking out my tripod to set it up.

After the loop hike we headed to Oneonta gorge for a 1 mile hike / swim to get to the waterfall at the end. This is not so much a hike as you have to walk through the gorge and at times wade through water. There was one section that was so deep, Jaime had to swim it. The water came to my upper chest, so I had to hold my gear above my head while wading through it.


The water was freezing, but the sun was out and it was a nice day for a swim. We also came prepared with swim clothes and water shoes, as reviews said you will get wet on this hike. There were a lot of people who did not know this and tried scaling the wall on the right which took 5x as long. To my surprise this was actually Jaime's favorite hike of the trip.....







After Oneonta, we headed to Elowah Falls, which was a 1.5 mile hike. When we got there the falls were misting, and the strong wind was pushing it way to the right so we just turned around and headed back to the car.

Last stop for the day was the 4 mile Eagle Creek trail to Punchbowl falls. We didn't arrive to the location until around 5pm and we were already pretty beat, but the trail itself was relatively flat.

We hiked a total of 12 miles that day. We had plans to check out Screen Door for dinner which is suppose to have real good fried chicken but we were so tired so we ended up getting gas and Popeye's haha.
The next day we headed south to Scott's Mills for some hiking. Both Abiqua Falls and Butte Creek Falls were in the same general area so we hit up both. The road down to Abiqua was sketchy; a 1-way road of mainly dirt, gravel and rocks. When we finally got down to the dead-end it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere....not a good place to be lost. The 1 mile hike was more of a scramble down. People have tied ropes to trees for assistance in steep areas which helped, but my legs were tired from the day before and carrying all my camera gear didn't help much.

The falls itself was very nice. After heading upstream, you end up in a huge cove which we had all to ourselves.







Jaime passed the time by building rock sculptures while I was snapping away.



I had to wade through the river to get from side to side of the gorge, so she also amused herself by taking pics of me struggling and walking on the slippery rocks barefoot.



Jaime also wanted to take a pic of our shadow...so here it is:



Butte Creek Falls was a short drive away so we headed there next. The hike was relatively flat, and only about 1 mile. The hike down led us to another cove, however a lot smaller than Abiqua. However, there was a cove behind so we were able to go behind the falls.








We ate lunch, and headed 2 hours NE to Government Camp, Mt. Hood. I was hoping for some clouds for a nice sunset from Trillium Lake, however the sky cleared up by sunset. I still snapped a few, capturing the last bit of light on Mt. Hood.



The next day I woke up for sunrise hoping for redemption. However, the sky was as clear as the night before so I waited for the sun to rise over the mountain and light up the remaining fog lingering around.


We did a lot of hiking over the 2-day span, but I wanted to pack it all in. My polarizer was my best friend for all these pictures, as it removed a ton of glare from the waterfall shots and the foreground, allowing me to capture the submerged rocks in the foreground.

We headed north 3 hours to Mt. Rainier National Park the next day which I will post on a separate entry.

Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
http://www.bay-photography.com/