| The
Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway abounds in waterfalls! I can't
believe how many there are and how different each one is. We've only
seen 5 of the 75 falls that spill from the walls, some of which are
visible from the road and others take more effort with hikes ranging
from moderately easy to seemingly straight up. |
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The
first one we saw was Wahkeena Falls, whose name in the Yakima
Indian language means "most beautiful." |
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We
walked up the steep trail where you could stand on a bridge and
get sprayed by the cool water falling into the first basin. I told
Don I agreed that this surely must be the most beautiful waterfall
in the area. He told me to reserve judgment until I had seen the
other four nearby.
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At our next stop,
Multnomah Falls, I had to admit I could not choose one over
the other any more than a mother could choose between her
children.
This beauty flows
over cliffs creating falls that drop 620 feet into a series
of basins and has a tragic Indian legend to add to its mystique.
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The
tale goes that an Indian princess threw herself over those cliffs
in an attempt to appease the Great Spirit when sickness befell her
people. Her spirit is said to have created and still lives in the
silvery stream that separates from the upper falls periodically,
a token of the acceptance of her sacrifice.
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One of the last
falls we saw, Latourelle, was the "plunge" kind,
which means there are no interim basins between the top and
the bottom pool.
It falls dramatically
in one stream so long that it doesn't make contact with the
surrounding boulders until the bottom 250 feet down.
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Again,
I couldn't possibly call one more impressive than another when all
are equally breathtaking in their own way.
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