Located in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, just about thirty miles East of Portland lies the hidden gem of Oneonta Gorge and Lower Oneonta Falls. Oneonta Falls takes a bit of work to get to, but boy oh boy, is it worth it! Oneonta Gorge is not accessible by trail. Instead, you must make your way up the creek bed, scale a large logjam, then hike through the gorge, and for a small stretch you are up to your waist or even chest high in cold water before you reach your big payoff – the beautiful falls at the end of the gorge. The pool at the falls offers a place for a refreshing, albeit brisk – swim, a jump off the rocks on the side near where the falls come down. This hike, while it is not a particularly difficult hike, it is labeled as difficult due to the fact that you have to climb the logjam, and walking through the creek bed over the rocks can be unstable and a little slippery. The walk itself is roughly a mile total, in and out and getting over the logjam may be too much for young children and dogs. Because of the hike up the creek bed and through the cold water, this is a hike that you’ll want to do on a hot, summer day. I recommend going on a weekday, as the gorge can really fill up on the weekends. According to Wikipedia, “The Oneonta Gorge is in the Columbia River Gorge in the American state of Oregon. The U.S. Forest Service has designated it as a botanical area because of the unique aquatic and woodland plants that grow there. The basalt walls are home to a wide variety of ferns, mosses, hepatics and lichens, many of which grow only in the Columbia River Gorge.Oneonta Creek runs through the gorge. There are four major waterfalls on the creek. Middle Oneonta Falls can be seen clearly from a footpath and is very often mistaken for the upper or lower falls. The lower gorge has been preserved as a natural habitat, so there is no boardwalk or footpath through it as such. Thus, Lower Oneonta Falls can only be seen by walking upstream from the creek’s outlet at the Historic Columbia River Highway. To get to a vantage point where the entire lower falls is visible can require wading through water that in some places can be chest-deep, depending on the season and the relative amount of snow-melt. The upper falls are about 1 mile upstream from the middle falls and require scrambling up the creek or climbing down a canyon wall to view. The fourth falls which is “Triple falls” can be seen from a vantage point on the upper trails in the canyon. The Oneonta Gorge was first photographed by Carleton Eugene Watkins, a native of Oneonta, New York, who had traveled west during the time of California Gold Rush of 1849. Watkins named the Oneonta Falls after his hometown”.
Have you visited these falls? We’d love to see your photos! You can share them with us on our Facebook wall!
