Multnomah

• Gilbert K. Chesterton.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

Multnomah Falls, at about 627 ft in elevation this is one of the premier attraction of the Columbia River Gorge and attracts quite a number of visitors. It’s considered by many as the second tallest year round waterfall in the US. We passed alongside the falls on our fourth day but the parking area was packed with cars, so we decided to get back here on the fifth day after shooting sunrise at the Trillium Lake.

We reached here around 6:30 am and there was nobody around, so we took our time taking pics and enjoying a stroll to small bridge across the falls. It’s not the most photogenic of the falls in Columbia River Gorge but its stunning just to see the sheer size of this stunning waterfall.

The waterfall is accessible from the Historic Columbia River Highway and Interstate 84. Spanning two tiers on basalt cliffs, it is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon at 620 ft (189 m) in height. According to legend from the Multnomah tribe (from whom the falls take their namesake), the waterfall was formed after a young woman sacrificed herself to the Great Spirit to save Multnomah village from a plague by jumping from the cliff, and the Multnomah peoples were saved. After her death, water began to flow from above the cliff, creating the waterfall.

The falls were noted in the journals of explorers William Clark and Meriwether Lewis during their expedition through the Columbia River Gorge in 1805

This is the oft-photographed Multnomah Falls in Oregon. I originally shot the full length of the falls (620 feet) but I found the slightly closer...