Family Hike

One of the things that Jason was most excited to do while he was in Oregon was to go hiking and see some waterfalls.  Oregon really has been blessed in the waterfall category—they are abundant and beautiful, and as good as Hawaii in my opinion.  On the Monday after the ward campout I gathered the kids (both the willing and the unwilling) and told them that we were going hiking.

I bought a few “Hike Oregon” books at the library book sale last year and had been reading through one of them to decide where we should go.  I finally decided that we would take the Wakeena Falls to Multnomah Falls hike, which was 5 miles and rated “moderate.” 

 

We packed up some water and snacks, drove into the Columbia River Gorge, and started our hike at Wakeena Falls.

From Wakeena Falls the trail went up.  Straight, straight up.  It was pretty brutal for a while there and everyone was feeling it.  If that was a “moderate” hike, we should probably stay far away from the difficult hikes.  We were grateful whenever there was a bench to sit on.

We were also grateful whenever there was a map posted so that we could make sure we were where we thought we should be.  We did realize at one point that we had made a wrong turn but fortunately we figured it out before we had gone too far.

Every now and then there was an overlook and we could see the river and Washington on the other side.

We saw a couple of dogs on the trail, which the kids enjoyed.  Especially when the dogs were as big as small horses!

The amazing thing about hiking up a trail along the creek is that you see waterfall after waterfall all along the way.

Jason was very impressed by the layer of moss on all of the trees.  Rachel just wanted to walk on the trees.

The reason that I made all of the kids (even the grumpy ones) come on this hike was that I was sure that once we were out on the trail together, they would have fun.  Sure enough, even the most recalcitrant participant had a good amount of fun during the hike.  And I loved seeing the kids walking and talking together in different pairings throughout the day. 

After hiking up along Wakeena Creek, we hiked on a level trail for a while.  It was amazing to hike through the beautiful forest with those super tall trees.

Then we turned and started down the trail towards Multnomah Falls.  Once again we saw a lot of waterfalls, and once again the trail was more difficult. 

There is an overlook at the top of Multnomah Falls.  We didn’t think it was much to look at—just the top of a waterfall.  From that point on, the switchbacks down the mountain are numbered.  At first we thought that was strange, but pretty soon we could see that the encouragement of knowing how much farther you had to go was really important.

By the time we got down the Multnomah Falls we were very ready to be there.  I think everyone’s feet were tired—it was a long 5 miles.  But what a most excellent adventure!