This was on the infamous Eagle Creek trail in the Columbia River Gorge. It had been closed for years after the terrible wild fires there. When it was announced that the trail was reopened, Nova and I were on it within just a few days. They had not replaced all the bridges yet, so this did involve some tricky river crossings. But we made it up to Tunnel and Twister Falls, which are our favorite waterfalls on this hike. This photo is of Tunnel Falls and you can see that a tunnel really does go behind the waterfall on the trail behind NovaLeigh. It is a spectacular place and we had it all to ourselves! Most people that tried the trail that day would not cross the last few rivers and truly missed out! It was a very wet and muddy hike out that afternoon and I heard that they closed the trail within a day or two of our being on it due to massive mudslides. Our timing could not have been more perfect!
Twister Falls is almost more spectacular than Tunnel Falls, but it is real hard to capture its full glory in a photo. The water drops down into this deep chute twisting as it goes.
This rocky ledge leading up to Twister Falls is such a great place to lay out and read a book when the weather is nice. However on this January day, it was rather cold, wet and muddy, so no book reading for us this day.
Nova was doing her best imitation of eating a waterfall while showing some of the wild fire damage on the other side of this ravine. I was pleasantly shocked to see how little actual damage there was. Most of this trail still felt the same as always. There were just patches of damage here and there along Eagle Creek. But it was nothing like my nightmares had been for this beloved hike!
Saying that we were wet, muddy and miserable beasts for our hike out, does not quite do it justice. Needless to say we would both be stripping down in the parking lot before we could get in the truck! YUCK! Now you can understand why the trail closed again after these photos due to mudslides.
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