If you haven’t read
part 1 of this post, go back and do so now. I’m going to refer to stuff from
that post, and it will make a LOT more sense if you read that part first.
After looking up some better directions on a hiking website,
we backtracked to the Elowah Falls trailhead. We had to park on the road as the
lot is pretty small, but our roadside spot was nice and shady, perfect for a
hot day. The trail started up past a big wooden water tank type thing with a
steady stream of water pouring out of a hole near the top. No clue where the
water comes from, but the steady spattering of water was a nice sendoff to the
hike.
The trail heads uphill paralleling the highway, accompanied
by all of the traffic noise from I-84. It did start to fade the higher we went,
which was a relief because it was pretty loud at the beginning. After a bit the
trail split, and a paper sign nailed to a post informed us that 1.1 miles up
the right hand path we’d find McCord Creek Falls and .4 miles to the left was
Elowah. Since McCord was uphill (remember our motto?) we decided to take that
path first.
‘Up’ doesn’t describe this walk. It had switchback after
switchback, snaking its way up the side of the hill and narrowing as it went.
Or maybe it was just that the higher we went the further we were from the
ground – remember that fear of heights thing? At one point we passed a big
rusted pipe running downhill, which might have been the source of the water in
the tank at the bottom of the hill, if it hadn’t been corroded through and
filled with dirt. A little farther up we came upon the same pipe, only this
time it was completely blocking the path with only a narrow section to step
onto to get past. NOT a happy place for me.
At last we looked up and saw a sheer rock wall above us. We
had to be almost there, right? Because there was no way to get around that
straight sheet of rock, right? HA! Apparently if you’re a Gorge trail builder
and you can’t get around a huge chunk of rock, you just carve a path into the
side of it. They were nice enough to put in a metal handrail, but the rock drops
straight down on one side and looms overhead on the other (seriously, they must
have blasted it out). Interestingly enough, with the handrail there I was much
better, despite the deep drop and the lovely view of the Columbia. The lovely
view that showed just how far up we were!! But hey, I had a handrail,
everything was good.
Past the section that was either vertigo inducing (because
of the height) or claustrophobic (because of all that crumbly rock overhead) we
went into a gorge bordered by lots of comforting vegetation with occasional
terrifying gaps where you could see waaaay down. And then we came around the corner and there
was the waterfall... Seriously? We walked all that exhausting and terrifying
trail for that? The trail does one last odd
clamber around a corner and…you can see the creek that feeds the falls. Yay.
So down we went, through the carved-out-of-rock section,
over the scary pipe, through all the switchbacks and (finally!) back down to
the junction. The trail to Elowah falls is shorter, less than half a mile, but it's all steeply downhill. As in,
the extremely fit people in their spandex were panting as they climbed past us.
Not a good omen. The falls are slightly more impressive than
the ones up above. They fall from higher up, anyway, making a refreshing misty
breeze as they hit the rocks.
After enjoying the mist for a few minutes we headed back
toward the car. We won’t talk about the walk back up, except to say that I
understand why the spandex people could hardly find the breath to say hi. But
we made it, and we get to mark two more hikes out of the Easy Day Hikes book. Hooray!
A few mental notes we took during the day’s hike: 1) Don’t
wear flip flops. You look like an idiot when you hike in flip flops. 2) Same
with white pants. Nobody should hike in white pants, and for some reason it’s
worse when it’s a man. 3) Hiking poles make you look like you’re a serious hiker,
especially those ski pole looking ones. 5)
Being young and wearing spandex does not
make you fit, but it gives a good illusion of it – especially if you just smile
when you pass people and don’t try to gasp out a greeting.
