No, actually I’m not. Today was a rest day. Had it been a week day I would have gone on a hike, but instead I opted for less crowded locales.

When I drove back to Portland yesterday I was surprised to finally see some overcast. It was dark when I left the hotel this morning, but when it got light I still had overcast skies. Yay!

My first stop was at the Cedar Creek Grist Mill. I figured that this might be a bit late for color, and I was right. I only took a few shots. I spoke for a bit with another photographer. Since he was headed to the Columbia River Gorge I gave him some tips and a color report. The folks in the grist mill were making cider. The sign on the side of the building indicated that visiting hours start at 1 o’clock, so I just watched at the door for a little bit. I’m pretty sure that they were open to receiving visitors. They were already putting out signs to make the narrow road one-way. I enjoyed the smell of sawdust and listening to the sound of the belts and pulleys. It was a comfortable feeling for me.

Going to Big Tree Creek Falls was a really low priority for me. But I ended up driving there since I was already going to be in the area. The gate was open. I saw a sign indicating that the gate opens one hour before hunting hours and is closed and locked one hour after. I have no idea what the hunting hours are. I’m sure that I would have been alright since it’s just a short walk on the road and then the view is from close to a bridge. Three trucks came out from that road during the few minutes that I was reading the sign. I decided to skip Big Tree Creek Falls and move on to Sunset Falls.

We saw Sunset Falls one June. I was pretty sure that it would look a whole lot better with a much lower river level. Well what do you know; I was right. Seeing Sunset Falls with low flow was the entire reason that I decided to come up this way today. I was very pleased not only with the waterfall, but also that I was enjoying overcast. I spent a lot of time here.

I have been to Yacolt Falls a couple of times. I was already more than happy with the photo results from a previous excursion, so I wasn’t expecting to top that. But I still was looking forward to seeing it again. It’s a good thing that I already got some good pictures since there is now a small fallen tree right at the best part of the waterfall. I still spent time taking many shots. Afterward I crossed the road and walked to a view of the arch bridge. Then I continued the very short distance to Moulton Falls. The sun had come out by the time I looped back to Yacolt Falls. Seeing it that way, I was happy that I got some shots in the right conditions beforehand.

I stopped at Lucia Falls, but there was too much sun on half of it to get any good shots. This is another location where I already was pleased with my photos, so it didn’t bother me too much that I wasn’t going to take pictures today. I took my time walking around and I watched some fish jumping up the falls.

I was planning to finish the afternoon at one or two other locations, but instead I made it a short day since I didn’t think that either place would be good in the sunlight.