Wahkeena – Multnomah Falls Loop, Dec 12th

Is not like I haven’t done this loop or trail before, I think by now I could do it backwards with my eyes closed, but with the couple of unseasonable cold weeks we’ve had, I knew the water falls were frozen or nearly frozen. With the mild winters we get in Oregon, frozen waterfalls are not very common, so this was an opportunity we couldn’t miss. Besides, I was not leading the hike, Gregg, a fellow hiker wanted to make this his first qualifying hike to become an assistant organizer in the group so I was just tagging along. Instead of leaving the cars at Wahkeena, we decided to park at Multnomah. Before heading out and doing the short connector trail to get to Wahkeena though, we went up a bit to take some early pictures of Multnomah, just in case weather got worse. From this moment on, we were just amazed by the beauty of the streams and waterfalls. The combination of running water and ice formations was incredible. The other thing we noted was that, as water freezes and turns white, little water trickles that you rarely see, form big ice sculptures around rocks and plants. On of these was the trickle on the way to Wahkeena. In the summer you can only see small drops of water sliding on moss. This time, we found a huge ice formation, large enough that there where a couple of ice climbers climbing it. Son after we got to the Wahkeena trailhead and another surprise. The creek was partially frozen but still with a lot of running water which made the ice transparent and even shiny.

Wahkeena Creek


The hike from there was, as expected, a bit tricky. On the way up, we had to pass several sections of the trail that were completely frozen. Having traction devices and poles did help a bit though. As we were gaining elevation, there was more ice but still the water was running underneath. At some point we crossed a small stream that had only a couple of holes here and there were you could see water rushing.

Water under the ice


Strangely enough, once we got up to the basin, there was no snow or ice. It was like winter was not happening in a big are of the forest. Then we started descending the Multnomah creek and to the most interesting part of the hike. This loop can be done clockwise or counter clockwise. Although clockwise gives you a nice view of the waterfalls as you approach them, doing it counter clockwise as we were doing it, is more impressive as you approach the waterfalls from the top. As we were descending, the first waterfall was Ecola. It was partially frozen but still running. Then came Weisendanger, the big waterfall that I’ve captured many times before. This time though, the waterfall had a partial ice cover on one side. Despite the force and the amount of water coming down, it was incredible to see this veil of ice just barely holding on top of it. This scenery made the trip for me, it was just incredible.

Weisendanger Falls under the ice veil


Then we got another surprise. A much smaller fall (that I can’t find the name) was completely frozen. The interesting thing was you could actually see movement under the ice, so we knew water was running. The really cool thing was that, since it was completely covered, there was no sound at all. The waterfall was totally silent. From there it was just more downhill and more ice until we got back to Multnomah falls. By that time the weather was turning on us and it was starting to rain again. With temperatures near freezing, that meant freezing rain, so the drive home was not a lot of fun.