Triple Falls Loop

 The last hike of our May Road Trip was the Triple Falls Loop Hike on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge. This is a 4.7 mile hike with 600 ft of elevation gain.
We started at the parking area nest to Horsetail Falls (176 ft drop)

 We hiked up the trail to the left of the falls. This huge rocky wall was covered with moss and lupine in bloom.

This trail continues up a couple of switchbacks.

A brief clearing gives a view of the Columbia River to the north.

And in 0.4 miles, we reached Ponytail Falls (80 ft drop) with the trail continuing behind the waterfall.

 View of Ponytail falls from the trail behind the falls.

 As the trail continues along the basalt cliffs, there is a short spur trail that leads to views overlooking the Columbia River to the east.

 The trail passes a large weeping wall before descending down some switchbacks to

 Oneonta Creek where you can see the drop off above Lower Oneonta Falls and

  Middle Oneonta Falls
The trail then joins the Oneonta Trail, where a 0.9 mile side trip leads to

 Triple Falls (64 ft drop)

 After enjoying the falls, we returned down the Oneonta Trail down to the Historic Columbia River Highway then returned to Horsetail Falls.
















Some of the wildflower we saw in bloom along the trail:

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Horsetail Falls Loop

 There was still a lot of daylight after our Coyote Wall Hike, so we decided to do a short waterfall hike on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge.
We chose the Horsetail Falls Loop hike, 2.6 miles with 610 ft of elevation gain.

 Horsetail Falls (176 ft) is right next to the Historic Hwy at the start of the trail.

Although this trail is mostly in the forest, there were several places where we had view overlooking the Columbia River

About 1/2 mile up the trail is Ponytail Falls (88 ft), the trail continues behind these falls.

Pano view from behind Ponytail Falls:

 View of Ponytail Falls from the other side of the trail.

The trail levels out after Ponytail Falls, and is a nice walk in a beautiful forest.

 View overlooking the Columbia River

 Trillium in bloom

 Lots of moss covered trees

 

The trail passes by a large weeping wall. Today there was almost enough water coming over to be a waterfall.

 Lower section of the weeping wall.

 The trail then drops down via switchbacks to the bridge over Oneota Creek in the Oneota Gorge.

 Looking down Oneota Gorge as the creeks travels down to the Columbia River.

 The trail crosses this bridge over Oneota Creek.

 Middle Oneota Falls (15 ft)

 The trail then continues down to the Historic Hwy, crossing a couple of other trails. We saw a few places where water was spilling over the rock walls along the trail.

 A distant waterfall

old moss covered stone wall.

 The trail joins the Historic Hwy for 1/2 mile walk back to Horsetail Falls. Before the trail goes through a tunnel,

 it crosses the north end of Oneota Creek.

 I took the short, very wet, trail up the side of the creek, where water was spilling over the rock walls.

 Too much water in the creek to look up into the Gorge, so I returned back to the Historic Hwy.

The loop ends back at Horsetail Falls.

Not on the trail, but a short drive down the Historic Hwy took us to Mutlanomah Falls.