Since I had already completed all of the major locations in my plan, I was reduced to looking for some fill in items from my options list. I can assure you that it’s a horrible situation to be in. I’m feeling so sorry for myself that I’m close to tears. Or maybe I’ll be honest and say that I simply enjoyed an easy and quite enjoyable final day in the Portland area.
I went to Wahclella Falls in the morning. I haven’t geocached in several years, but I would have had to be blind to miss the cache sitting right out on a rock near the falls. I wrote a short note in the log, but I don’t intend to go to the web site and record my visit. I guess that sometimes people just find caches and write in the log even if they’re not involved in geocaching. For instance, someone at work found a cache and read the log. There was an entry from a decidedly non-geocacher. It read, “Why don’t you people just get high?”
I went about halfway up the talus slope and shot a couple of quick frames. I was going to continue to the huge boulder but decided that there wasn’t much point. Since East Fork Falls was barely flowing and the ephermal waterfall on the cliff wall near the talus slope was living up to its description, I didn’t expect that I was going to get any particularly good shots from up there. The only reason I would have gone is to see if the shrine has been replaced. It was gone during a previous visit or two, so I don’t have any reason to expect that it’s back.
My next stop was Beacon Rock State Park. Since I didn’t have any time pressure I hiked slow and stopped often to just enjoy my last day in the Gorge. I was on the Hamilton Mountain Trail, but I had no intention of going up to the top. I’m not one of those sort of people who needs to get high. While I can enjoy grand, scenic views, I seem to gravitate to much closer, more intimate settings.
Rodney Falls was mostly in the shade, but there were spots of sunlight. Although those certainly didn’t enhance my pictures, I managed to get a couple of photos that weren’t too bad. It’s a pretty waterfall, but the coolest part is something which isn’t easy to photograph. There is a spur to the Pool of the Winds, which is a small alcove that the top tier of the waterfall flows into. The view is fenced since it’s on the rocks right next to the outlet. I can only imagine how much wind and spray shoots out of there when the creek is flowing high. A somewhat drier view can be had from the bridge below. There was no spray at the bridge today. It probably does get wet in high water, although it would be nothing like standing next to the entrance of Pool of the Winds. The entire cascade goes on for a while, but there aren’t really good viewpoints.
Looking at the park map, I saw a short trail to a pond size lake. I figured why not check it out since I was already finished with what I wanted to do today. It was nice hiking without my backpack and tripod. There may have been a pond there at one time, but now it’s a marshy meadow surrounded by berry thickets.
