Follow Me, Guys!

We've spent the week trying to decide which direction we would head this weekend to explore new territory. After throwing out a few possibilities, we chose to take a day trip to the Multnomah Falls area just east of Portland; thirty minutes to an hour drive, depending on how much you want to see in between. Our trip began to unfold with the discovery of our wicker picnic basket in a box out in the garage. Originally a wedding gift that (sadly) never got as much use as once dreamed, it immediately had the attention of our children in the hopes that they could be the ones to enjoy some gourmet ham and cheese sandwiches out of it. Well, I was able to supply the ham and cheese part of the sandwiches, anyway. I'll leave the gourmet for another lifetime.

Wahkeena Falls

With sandwiches and goodies carefully packed and ready to go, we took the semi-scenic route off of I-84 and made our way to the falls. Just before we got to Multnomah Falls, however, we discovered another waterfall that had been mentioned in some of the information I'd been reading about our destination and decided stop there first "just to get the kids warmed up." Three miles up a trail and three miles back down said trail, we were sufficiently warmed up and ravenous for the contents of our picnic basket. At that point, it could have been a paper grocery bag for all we cared. As long as it had food in it, no one would get hurt.

Fairy Falls

It was a fabulous diversion. We had stumbled upon Wahkeena Falls. If you like to hike, then I highly recommend starting at the Wahkeena Falls Trailhead and let your little legs start walking like we did...just make sure you've got a bottle or two of water along, unlike us. It wasn't until we came upon beautiful little Fairy Falls and I had taken close to 200 photos that we realized the small-ish waterfall 1/4 mile into the beginning of our trip was actually THE Wahkeena Falls and we were still on the long trail toward Multnomah. AND it wasn't until we got back down to the parking lot and the van containing our glorious picnic basket (I swear we were only propelled forward by the thought of food and water by this time) that we realized the point where we had finally decided to turn around--Larch Mt. Trail--was three miles up the trail we had just descended.

Always Read The Trail Signage

So, to recap--we had essentially just taken a four-year-old and a six-year-old hiking for the first time up three miles of switchbacks and back down over a timespan of not quite 2 1/2 hours. And we were all still upright. No one was bleeding. And we were all still speaking to one another. And a little giddy...definitely tired, but giddy from realizing what we had just unwittingly accomplished. Had it not been for the fantastic views every direction you looked and God-sent benches strategically placed along the way, we would have never made it as far up as we did.

And who else but my four-year-old son was leading the way the whole time. We often had to tell him to stop and wait for us to catch up. Other times, he would make us stop to pick up a rock and throw it in the water or be the one to tell us how beautiful the river was as it rushed past us on the trail. When he wasn't pointing out the lovely things around us, my daughter was greeting every hiker we passed in what she assumed was their native language. "Hola!" and, "Nai hao!" were among the most commonly used.

Multnomah Falls

We eventually did make it to Multnomah Falls, and it was well-worth the short drive there (hiking not being an option anymore). It's an impressive but delicate 611-foot waterfall that conjures up images of elves and shires and hobbits. We had already been enchanted by this point though, and the hoards of people that had decided to spend their Saturday afternoon driving around drove us back into our van and down the road again.

We took the ultra-scenic way home on old Highway 30 along the Columbia River Gorge. The fresh air and quiet, winding curves soon lulled our little hikers to sleep the rest of the way. It was a day filled with sensory nourishment.

~Paula