Tumalo Falls Viewpoint
Taken at second viewpoint after you start up the Tumalo trail. Taken after first light but before dawn.
With a sheer plunge of 89 feet, Tumalo Falls is both the tallest and most impressive waterfall along Tumalo Creek - as well as one of the most popular outdoor destinations in the vicinity of Bend. The area around the falls was burnt in a 1979 forest fire, though like the landscape surrounding Mount St. Helens after it's devastating 1980 eruption, the forest is quickly healing. A few snags still line the hillsides along the valley but the area is green again, covered with small fir trees and not at all detracting from the splendor of the falls. A nice set of viewpoints both at the top and near the base of the falls make viewing the falls possible for nearly everyone.
- Benjamin Disraeli.
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After spending about three days at Mt Rainier National Park our original plan was to head down to the southern Cascades and get to the panther creek falls and Mt Adams. We drove down on national forest road 25 from Randle but unfortunately, the road was closed around iron creek falls due to snow. So we headed back to Randle but found some incredible fields of wildflowers on the way and decided to stop and photograph them.
After the short macro session when we came back to the car we found it completely dead. The battery was fully drained and since these modern cars operate on all electric motors we couldn’t even open the tailgate. Thankfully one of the first passing drivers stopped to help us, but he didn’t have any jumper cables. But my wife remembered that we had a jumper cable from our old car in the trunk and thanks to our Subaru being wagon she could climb to the trunk from the backseat and retrieve it. We jump started the car with the help of the kind stranger in minutes and were soon on our way.
Since our carefully planned itinerary was in a state of disarray, we decided to change plans and head to one of our favorite towns in all of the west coast, Bend Oregon. We reached Bend late and crashed at a cool new motel called Loge Entrada. Spend a lazy morning having breakfast and coffee at one of our favorite brunch joints in town and headed out to Tumalo Falls. Last year we visited the same waterfall, but my wife fell in sick and we had to satisfy with just the standard waterfall shot from the viewpoint. This time we were determined to complete the hike and see the other waterfalls along the trail. This shot was taken from the top of Tumalo falls as the creek drops of a 97 ft sheer granite cliff.
Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Tumalo Falls Viewpoint!
Most notably Sandeep Thomas and Bonnie Moreland.