Oregon Waterfalls

Oregon Waterfalls

During our road trip from Utah to Washington, we stopped in Oregon. On our way from Idaho to Portland, we decided to see a few of the Oregon waterfalls that we’ve heard so much about: Horsetail, Multnomah, and Wahkeen. I’m sure there are many more, but we also didn’t want to get to our hotel room too late that night and so we stuck to these three. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find the waterfalls because I wasn’t familiar at all with the area.  My phone service wasn’t working well, but I set my GPS on my phone. As long as I didn’t reset the address, it stayed in my phone.

Horsetail Falls

The first waterfall, which was Horsetail falls was pretty easy to find.  The waterfall was a welcome stop, as we were tired of being in the car at this point.  My kids were really excited that they could get in the water.  We stayed for a while and then went on to the next waterfall. I knew the three waterfalls were on the same road, but didn’t know how far up the road the next one was. While talking to a few people out there, they said we could walk or drive to the next, but it was about a mile up the road.  We were glad that we decided to drive because the road was very narrow and there wasn’t any room to walk on the side of the road in some sections.

Multnomah Falls

We quickly made it to Multnomah Falls, which is the biggest and most known of the three waterfalls.  We saw the big lodge/visitor center right away and it was easy to find a parking space. Multnomah Falls was amazing.  We walked up to the bridge (Benson Bridge), which was a very small (paved) hike (about 1/2 mile). The trail keeps going up to the top of the waterfall, but we were tired and decided to stop at the bridge. It wasn’t too bad being up there until we looked straight down.

Wahkeena Falls

The third waterfall was Wahkeena Falls. I wasn’t sure what to expect here. We drove out to this one also and quickly found parking. It was the smallest of the three. My youngest daughter was hoping that she could get in the water again, but it wasn’t big enough for that. It was fun to see, but we did wish that we had spent more time at Horsetail Falls playing in the water.

It was a great experience and we were happy that we stopped. Have you been to these waterfalls? What did you think? Are there any other waterfalls in the area that you would recommend?