Photo Tour of the Eagle Creek Trail

One of the main reasons I moved to Oregon was so I could go hiking at the drop of a hat. When the project I was expecting on Monday got delayed, I headed out to Eagle Creek, one of the prettiest hikes in the Columbia River Gorge and only a 45-minute drive from my house. It’s a 12-mile trek through classic Pacific Northwest forest wilderness that meanders past at least six spectacular waterfalls. I try to hike it every spring, when the wildflowers are in bloom.

I’m tempted to expound long-windedly about each of the photos here, but I think they speak for themselves. Lots of moss; lots of trees; lots of mist (it rained for most of the hike); and lots and lots of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal water. I will note that the last photo is of the enormously tall Tunnel Falls. What’s cool is that the trail turns into a tunnel and passes right behind the falls. You get a bit wet doing so, but the power and roar of all that falling water is quite thrilling. The blue dot next to the falls is me, getting ready to go in one end and out the other. (Click on photos if you want to enlarge them.)