This could easily have been title Waterfall Porn since this hike takes you past several incredible falls. It is a short hike, 5 miles or so, about an hour out the Gorge from Portland. You can park at Horsetail Falls and start the hike, but we chose to park a little closer to where we would be ending the hike and walk the short distance down the road to the start.
The hike starts with a short walk up several switchbacks... Well, ok, the hike starts at the incredible Horsetail Falls which I failed to get a picture of since there was too many people about because it is right there at the parking area. However, the hiking starts with a short walk up several switchbacks, taking you up into the big trees and away from the highway. There are several spots off of the trail to get an incredible view of the Gorge and the mighty Columbia, but we decided to keep hiking.
After a little bit you will hear Ponytail Falls. Once it comes into view you will realize why I called this Waterfall Porn. This is one of those awesome fall that you can walk behind and when you look at the photos you will realize how large the falls actually are.
The trail continues on into Oneonta Canyon and in a short time you are taking a few switchbacks down to the the bridge that crosses Oneonta Creek with Middle Oneonta Falls above the bridge and Lower Oneonta Falls below the bridge. It is quite spectacular, but, again, I failed to get photos because of some lost Aussie. I think that Adriane took some photos. If so, I will add them later.
A short bit after the bridge you will come to a fork in the path, with the trail continuing on to Multnomah Falls, but we took the left hand path, Oneonta Trail #424. This is the trail to Triple Falls. This path is a little bit more daunting than the rest of the trail, but really isn't that bad. It has a couple sections that are pretty steep and a nice walking stick comes in handy, but nothing to fear and the end result is well worth it. This part of the hike is an out and back and after taking in the beauty of Triple Falls, we headed back and continued down the trail towards Multnomah Falls, breaking off after a couple of miles on the trail that took us back to the car.
All in all, a really spectacular hike with falls, falls and more falls. It is short enough to do in a couple hours, even with all of the gaping time.