Beyond Wakeena Falls

 Wakeena Falls is along the Old Columbia River Highway and is one of the first big falls you come to, driving east from Portland.  There is a good-sized parking area there at Wakeena; a campground is on the other side of the highway and the falls itself are a short walk up a switch-backing trail:

It looks like (and we had just come from Horsetail Falls, where there is) an "upper falls" is above us in the gorge walls…

so we kept walking UP the trail, which zig-zagged it’s way up to the tops of the gorge.

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The trail did follow the stream (I think) that creates Wakeena Falls…

It just kept going UP.

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We came to an overlook of the gorge, having gained over a thousand feet in elevation:

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The trail ran out onto a kind of "pier", jutting out from and over the gorge walls:

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After this spur off to see the gorge, the trail kept going up:

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We never did find an "upper falls" at Wakeena…

And although it turned out to be a kind of stenuous hike, it was pretty dang scenic.

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