Travel

The Columbia River Gorge (and Portland, I guess)

by Charli

Yesterday, we made it to Portland, met my boss for brunch at Jam on Hawthorn (really tasty!), then peeked downtown. We’ve realized that, with our limited time in these big cities, there’s so much to do that we feel overwhelmed. At least that’s the issue for me. AC just doesn’t like people so she hates cities 😉 We walked inside Powell’s Books – a massive bookstore – where I felt even more overwhelmed with too much to see in too little time. We found a couple photo spots just to prove we were here, then checked into our hotel and promptly found a great little happy hour for dinner!

Charli and AC make silly faces in front of a mural that says "Keep Portland Weird."
Austin will always be the weirdest in our hearts.

Today we went back to nature, which is much more our scene these days, and chased waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge. “Gorge” is short for “gorgeous”…the Columbia River Gorgeous. AC found us some more switchbacks on a 5.6 mile hike. I was surprised she even presented a hike of that length as an option! I guess she loves me. The trail took us just under 3 hours to complete and we saw so. many. waterfalls!

We started at picture-perfect Multnomah Falls, Oregon’s tallest waterfall that flows under a bridge. Next came the switchbacks. 11 of them, according to the trail markers…but those trail markers lied; we counted about 14. There were fewer switchbacks than our Sauk Mountain hike earlier this week, but these were steeper. And once the switchbacks ended, we just hiked straight uphill for another mile and half. We took it slow and steady and were thankful when the trail finally turned downward. We passed lots of unique waterfalls, and had a good time recording some goofy footage for AC’s Instagram (if you don’t follow her yet, she’s @tillingourstory and her stuff is way more comical than mine).

A two-tier waterfall with a bridge running over the separation
Multnomah Falls
  • AC and Charli pose in front of a large waterfall
    Wahkeena Falls
  • Charli and AC pose in front of a two tier waterfall.
    Bridal Veil Falls
  • A waterfall unfolds beneath a sun streaming through the tree tops.
    Fairy Falls
  • A small waterfall cascades from one level of the creek to the next.
  • A black slug
    A slug
  • A simple waterfall in the background of some timber that has fallen across the creek
    Weisendanger Falls
  • View from the top of a waterfall, looking down into the pool below
    View from mid-Multnomah Falls
  • A small green snail makes it way across the rock
    A snail
  • AC walks beneath the overhang of a rock wall.

After this first hike, we headed to one more, this one much shorter. After only 2/3 of a mile we found Bridal Veil Falls. We ended our lovely morning/early afternoon with a stop at Vista House for views of the Gorge.

Charli and AC pose in front of a two tier waterfall.
Bridal Veil Falls
An octagonal art deco building with two floors and green stained-glass windows
Vista House
A panoramic view of the Columbia River
View of the Columbia River from atop the Vista House

We returned to the hotel in dire need of some showers. Then we watched Coco Gauff win the US Open and headed to the same restaurant as yesterday for happy hour dinner because it was that good! We wrapped up the evening watching UT beat Alabama so it was a great day!

Until next time,

Charli