from what I saw last weekend, the fire seems to have burned farther up river, east of Multnomah, and a bit south. I saw plenty of burnt trees in Oneonta Gorge. The cliffs farther south are a bit bare, but not farther west closer to Portland.
Thanks Tim - the trees at the bottom of this scene avoided getting scorched but a number of the trees at the top of the cliffs are darkened trunks without live growth. I have plenty of shots just to the west of this one that show the marks of the fire quite clearly. I have one with a view of Multnomah Falls that shows both the fire damage as well as low lying deciduous growth of new plants coming up in between the tree snags.
Correct - the shot I just posted shows Oneonta Gorge from the middle of the river (drone shot).
Alan, have you ever hiked inside that gorge? The sight of it made my friend and I slam on the breaks to get a closer look. It looks like there is a trailhead by the road, but there is so much water coming down the gorge that the trail is submerged.
Prior to the fire you could get about 1/3 mile up the Oneonta Gorge before you would hit some huge log jambs that made further hiking impossible. I did hike up to that spot several times prior to 2017 but have not tried going up there since. This spring has been bonkers for the amount of rain we have received so most of the streams are torrents right now.
Thanks Ben - I used to seek the ephemeral waterways out when I was living in Cache Valley as an undergraduate. There were quite a few in the Wellsville Range and the Bear River Mountains.
thank you
Thanks Jim - There are about a dozen seasonal falls like this where the streams and creeks don't have names but put on a great show during the rainy season.What a cool shot Alan, it has a very hidden feel to it. Hidden Falls would be great name for it since it’s hidden most of the year.
Tim had a great question since a lot of your recent images showed everything being green. So it was great to hear Michael’s report from being there and then your observations.
It looks like the trail to Triple Falls is open again.
Alan, I am trying to recall, after you mentioned log jams. It seems to me that I did hike the gorge of this 4 or 5 years before the fire. I distinctly remember a gorge with several log jams that I had to go over. I had brought along my ice crampons for my shoes as I had read that was a safe way to get over the wet and slippery logs.
Thanks Jameel - best of all this time of year is having some clouds to lessen the impact of direct sunlight. The more direct sun we get the harder it is to shoot the gorge given the contrast of the bright sunlight and the shadows and especially along the cliffs on the Oregon side of the river.
