Like I said in my last post, yesterday we made a day trip to the Columbia River Gorge. It's only a couple of hours away from where we live, so certainly I'll be making my way there again when the weather is a bit better.
The photo below is another one of Multnomah Falls, this time catching the entirety of the upper falls. These stitches are a bit of a pain, and in this case I'm not sure worth the hassle since the water drops were plainly visible on the lens once the bright sky was included in the photo. But at least everyone has a better idea of what we were looking at!
What family "vacation" would be complete without the obligatory family group mug shot? Good looking group...
And this is punch bowl falls. It was two miles almost all uphill to get here, with two pretty exposed cliff faces complete with steel cable to hold onto and a bad drop on the other side. It was more nerve wracking on the way down with the kids, but we made it. Next time I'll make that trip alone. Once we got there, it was actually at an overlook from above the falls. I made my way down to the river for this photo. The river wasn't that deep, and since I was wearing waterproof shoes, I gingerly made my way out past the outcrop of rock (photo left) that was hiding punch bowl falls. I was mostly successful, but then I slipped and water got in over the tops of my shoes. So now my feet were wet, I didn't have the composition I really wanted, and I had a decision to make. Go all in and stand where I pleased, or just get a photo from where I was with one wet foot and a two mile hike out?
Come on, that's no choice. I stood knee deep in a snow melt river in early February without a change of clothes to get this photo. I'm not all that impressed with this photo, there is still a lot of work I need to do to make it better. Ultimately, I'll go back when it is really green and bring my water sandals with a change of shoes and socks wearing my convertible hiking pants.
We had a nice time on the hike, for the most part. Punch Bowl Falls was totally worth it, and I can't wait to go back again. The trip to the Columbia River Gorge was a pleasant day trip that got us out of the house and enjoying the great outdoors. We were all sore when we got home, and everyone slept in!
Have a great day everybody!
