While Scott was in Packwood, WA auto-cross racing our Honda Civic I met up with my USU Geology field partner, Torrey Copfer, and his family, Melissa, Jesse, and Jacob, to hike to the top of Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River gorge. Luckily five-year-old Jesse wanted to hike fast and rest A LOT and two-year-old Jacob walked very slowly when he wasn't riding in Torrey's child pack and I was able to make it up the very steep 1 mile trail to the top of the falls with breath to spare. I had a great time getting to know Melissa better and meeting the kids. I got to chat with Melissa about kids, pregnancy, and childbirth (go figure) and reminisce with Torrey about all the great times we had working on our Geology undergraduate degrees. As an added bonus, I got some exercise! Our round trip excursion was only about 2.5 miles and lasted nearly five hours, but that did include a long lunch at the top and plenty of play time for the boys. I'm ready to vegetate for the rest of the night, but the outing was well worth it.
I was pleasantly surprised that several of my pictures turned out halfway decent and especially proud of myself for remembering to take the camera.
This is a view of the middle part of the Falls taken from the main bridge.
Here's a close up of the great blue heron you can't see in the previous photo.
And the view from the bridge looking down the lower part of the falls.
This was taken from the platform at the top of the falls, looking back up the river at a small waterfall just before the brink of the main cascade.
