Hello, vicarious travelers!
I have had a few busy weekends the last couple weeks, and a few more adventures with the (not so) new-ish boyfriend that I thought I might add in here, for those of you Oregonians looking for new things to do in the area or those of you from far away wondering what the hell Oregon has to offer.
Some awesome things, it turns out, none of which I'd ever done before.
I made a big list of the all the things I wanted to do and see in the United States, and decided that job #1 was taking care of all the Oregon sights unseen.
Last weekend my boyfriend and I both had Saturday off, so he picked me up from work on Friday and we drove out of town, east, toward Estacada. Just past Estacada is a long, narrow valley with a winding highway right down the center, and we drove along it toward Bagby Hot Springs (which boyfriend helped re-build several years ago when he was working as a carpenter). It took about two and a half hours from Portland, but that was mostly due to traffic coming out of town. On the way back it took less than two hours.
Bagby Hot Springs is pretty well described by its name: it's a hot spring that was discovered by some dude named Bagby (let's hope it was his last name). The water is far too hot to touch for prolonged periods of time, so the water was diverted into tubs using a woodworked piping system, and a nearby stream was diverted into a pool from whence bathers take buckets of cold water to cool their too-hot spring water. There is one very large communal tub that is right next to the mouth of the hot spring, then a few smaller group tubs and five private tubs a little further on down the hill. The private tubs are clothing optional, and the smaller group tubs might be as well (the signage was a bit unclear, but there were naked people there, so probably clothing optional, unless they're rebels).
The hot springs is located a lot farther down the valley than most of the major campgrounds, so we tried to find a campsite on our way up there. Most of the campgrounds allow online reservation, and have thus been full for months. However, we found one spot that was open in one campground. If we hadn't found an official spot, we would have just found somewhere a little secluded and off the road to create our own unofficial campsite. A lot of people had done that along the road. There were even a few good spots along a hike that was just past Bagby, on the same hillside. The only problem with unofficial campsites is that the bathrooms are either non-existent or shitty (pun quite obviously intended).
I hadn't been camping since I was a kid and I had completely forgotten just how much gear it entails. A lot. A lot of gear is what it entails. The thing that struck me once we started to get unpacked was just how nature-y everything was. That might sound stupid, but I've been living in cities for so long, and have spent so little time in forests in the last few years that I was stunned by the ancient behemoths and unrelenting green that surrounded me. After we got our site all set up, we were tired so we just made dinner, played some cards and crashed.
In the morning we got up pretty early and made pancakes. As we sat eating we heard a huge crunching sound, and turned to look over our shoulders at the forest deeper into our campground. At the top of the tree line, maybe 100 feet away, two trees were swaying precariously at the top as one teetered on allowing itself to be broken by the other, and then with a massive CRACK the top of it disappeared and there was a huge rumble of debris thumping menacingly down the side of the hill. A few rocks and large pieces of wood made it all the way down to the road about fifty feet away from us, rendered harmless as they stopped, their thirst for destruction sated. We were both amazed at how close it had been, and yet it somehow didn't occur that it might have been closer to others. It turns out that the top of the tree barreled through another campsite and went over the table, through the fire pit, and stopped within a foot of the tent. Thank god it stopped, I guess.
After our eventful breakfast we set out for Bagby. It was about a thirty minute drive from our campground, but it was through a beautiful valley of trees, rivers, and cliffs, so we didn't mind much. There was a parking lot at the bottom, and rangers that warned us there was no potable water at the top. We probably should have brought more water with us (note to self for next time) but obviously we survived. The hot springs were really nice, and we made use of a private tub to have a nice long soak. After about an hour we left and headed down a twelve mile hike into the Bull of the Woods Wilderness. We didn't do the full twelve miles, but we did take a detour down a dried up creek bed and do about half the hike. Then we headed back and went for another hour long soak in the tubs, relaxing and luxuriating in the warm mineral bath. Along the way back we stopped frequently so I could take pictures of the beautiful valley, and just to get a closer look at things as well. We hung out for the night and left early the next morning, taking more picture as we continued out of the valley.
Then yesterday (a Monday) we both had the day off again, so we decided to tick another thing off my list and head to Oneonta Gorge. Boyfriend had been before, but it was my first time and I was really excited. Oneonta Gorge is a small gorge that runs perpendicular to the Columbia River Gorge, a large and very famously Ansel-Adams-photographed wonder of Oregon. It's along the historic highway just past Multnomah Falls (another must see if traveling to Oregon).
The hike starts out easy enough, picking your way across dry rocks across a creek, which was made easier for me by the fact that I was wearing water shoes I had just purchased as someone forgot my hiking shoes. You hike along for a while, trying to keep your feet dry, and then you come to a huge pile of log and boulders. Not so easy. On the other side is knee deep water. Not so dry. You wade through that for a while and then the water gets shallower. And then it gets deeper; about waist deep to be exact. You wade through that and come to a small pool and a beautiful waterfall that rounds out the back side of the gorge. It's a short hike, and takes only maybe 20 to 30 minutes each way, depending how sure footed and unafraid of scrambling and shimmying and scraping over rocks and logs you are.
There's another trailhead a few dozen yards past the opening of Oneonta Gorge, and the trail takes you along the top of the gorge, although there are too many trees to see well. However, the trail continues back farther into the woods and ends at Triple Falls, a beautiful sight of three waterfalls cascading gleefully over the edge of the same cliff, distinct from one another and yet only a few feet apart. We hiked into the creek that feeds the falls and found that there was an almost eerily still pool at the top of each waterfall, two of which went right up the edge of the falling water. We ate lunch on a log and then sat in one pool for a while, then moved onto a rock right at the edge and watched the water falling just beside and below us. It was absolutely stunning. We hiked back down and took a different turn to Horsetail Falls. When we reached the next waterfall along the path, we assumed it was Horsetail Falls. The path itself went under the cliffside, right behind the waterfall. We walked right down to the spot where the falls hit the pond and took a few pictures, then continued on our hike, eager to find the road and get back to the car which we could use to drive for more water. We never bring enough water.
When we reached the road we very quickly came upon another waterfall, labelled Horsetail Falls. So who knows what the other one was. The real Horsetail Falls was also quite pretty, though less so than the other we'd seen that day, in my opinion. We walked a short way down the road and found our car, then headed back to Troutdale for water before heading back to Portland.
It was a really nice way to spend a late morning/ early afternoon. I would highly recommend it as a day trip from Portland, and would recommend Bagby Hot Springs, as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment