When Wildfire Smoke Hits, Head to the Water(falls)
Tanya and I recently returned from a 9-day trip to the Bend, Oregon area. While there, I’d hoped to get some shots of the nearby mountains and lakes. After several relatively clear days, during which I photographed at Smith Rock, wildfire smoke blew into the region. Some days were worse than others, but it did really put a damper on my plans. I was bummed, but figured it wasn’t the best time of year to photograph the mountains anyway because they has so little snow (South Sister had a decent amount, but Mount Bachelor was essentially bare). So instead, I spent most of my photography time shooting waterfalls and the Deschutes River where the smoke was much less of an issue.
Tumalo Creek is a tributary of the Deschutes River west of Bend. There are several scenic waterfalls on the creek, the best known being Tumalo Falls (note: Tumalo Falls, and indeed Tumalo Creek, is not located in Tumalo State Park). While the flow of Tumalo Creek is diminished by irrigation and water-supply diversions by the time the creek reaches the river, these diversions are all below the falls. And, being spring-fed, there is a good flow over the falls even in late summer.
There is an 8-mile loop trail that starts at Tumalo Falls and goes by six other waterfalls (or seven depending on how you count). Due to time, I did not do the entire loop, but rather did a 6-mile out-and-back hike to Middle Tumalo Falls, which also took me by Double Falls (which is really two different waterfalls, in my opinion).
Tumalo Falls is considered one of the most photogenic falls in the State of Oregon. The view is good from the lower viewpoint near the parking lot (which fills early during the summer; additional parking is further down the road, with an official overflow parking lot a mile or more from the falls), but you can also work your way upstream from the bridge over the creek just before the parking lot on an unofficial trail for a view with the creek in the foreground (the featured photo above). The North Fork Trail, which forms half of the aforementioned loop, leads to an upper viewpoint at the top of the falls about 1/4 mile from the parking lot.
Beyond the top of Tumalo Falls, the North Fork trail continues, leading to the very pretty Double Falls, about one mile from the trailhead. Double Falls is really three waterfalls, two close together and the other a couple hundred feet upstream. The viewpoint along the trail is above the creek, on the edge of a canyon, looking down on the falls. The upper portion of Double Falls is about 300 feet further up the trail.
A mile or so further is Middle Tumalo Falls. Here the view from the official viewpoint is somewhat obscured by trees. However, it is fairly easy to scramble down to creek level for a closer look. Be sure to pack your wide-angle lens for all three of these falls.
South of Bend there are several other waterfalls. The Deschutes River southwest of Bend has three waterfalls, only one of which, Benham Falls, is readily accessible. Benham Falls, which appears like more of a very steep rapid than a waterfall, is a mass of white water shooting through a bedrock chute. The main viewpoint gives the only decent view from below the falls. Above the falls, there are several spots to shoot the top of the falls and other rapids above the falls, both above the river and at river level. Though located down a rough dirt Forest Service Road, Benham Falls get a fair amount of visitation.
For a more truly off the beaten path waterfall, try Fall River Falls, located in La Pine State Park. The road to reach this waterfall is not even marked (see directions on Photohound). Though not particularly impressive, there is a great swimming hole below the falls, and Fall River above the falls is very scenic.
There are about a half dozen waterfalls on Paulina Creek in and adjacent to Newberry National Volcanic Monument. The most popular is Paulina Falls, an unusual twin waterfall in the Newberry volcano caldera. Further down the creek there are a number of waterfalls, most of which are accessible only by hiking. The excepting being McKay Crossing Falls, which is located at the McKay Crossing Campground.
You can access additional information and see addition photos of these waterfalls on the Photohound website.
Murhut Falls
With a shelter-in-place order coming sooner rather than later, over the weekend, Tanya and I decided to get Benson out for his first hike before it was too late. Still a puppy, Benson sorely needs more and varied experiences, such as hiking. We decided a a short, easy hike to a Murhut Falls.
This hike is only 1.6 miles round trip with an elevation gain of about 250 feet. Being in the Olympic National Forest, it is open for dogs as well (unlike in most national parks). The weather was great, and we were not the only ones with the idea to get outside while possible. We saw many families with small kids, as well as many other dogs on the trail. Luckily, the trail is fairly wide, and it was easy to step off to the side to maintain social distancing in this time of the Covid-19. In fact, out on the trail, you would have been hard press to know there was a pandemic going on (not so earlier in the morning when we went grocery shopping for Tanya’s mom so she could stay sheltered at home – the mood in the store was very somber, with bare shelves in several places, and several shoppers wearing masks and gloves).
The waterfall itself is very photogenic, with two drops falling a total of 153 feet. The falls face north, such that even though we were there at mid-day, the entire falls and surrounding forest were in the shade, perfect for waterfall photography. If you make this hike, you will definitely want to take a wide-angle lens. From the viewpoint, you need at least a 24mm lens to get the whole falls in. With a bit of scrambling, you can also get to the bottom of the falls, where again a wide-angle lens is needed.
So how did Benson do on his first hike? It seems he totally forgot what heel meant. He’s pretty good at it when walking around the neighborhood, but on the trail, he was choking himself most of the time trying to be the one to lead his “pack.” I do hope we can get him trained to heel better soon, at 6 months old he weighs in at almost 95 pounds! He’s getting difficult to hold back when he decides that heeling doesn’t mean anything!
The featured shot above is a two-shot vertical panorama from the viewpoint at the end of the trail. The shots below were taken near the base of the falls (except for the three of us at the bench at the viewpoint).
Waterfalls, Waterfalls
If you are a waterfall hunter, the fjord region of Norway is quite literally a smorgasbord for cascading delights. Where ever we drove, waterfalls were to be found. Waterfalls of every description (big and wide, skinny and tall, tall and wide, graceful, forceful, wistful) abound, cascading over the mountain sides. Waterfalls that, had they been in the United States would be the focus of a state or national park, were only causally mentioned on maps in Norway.
As I enjoy photographing waterfalls, so I was in waterfall heaven. And waterfalls, unlike many landscape subjects, often look best under gloomy skies, which is what we had for much of the trip. Normally, the best time of year for waterfall hunting in Norway would be in mid-summer, as the snowpack melts and fills the riverbeds, not mid-September when we went. Yet as luck would have it, the remains of two tropical storms went through Norway when we were there, causing heavy rain and cascading waters everywhere ( I guess all that rain was one of those if life gives you lemons, make lemonade type things).
The featured image above is of the famous Seven Sisters, also know as Die Sju Systre and Knivsflåfossen. Below are more of the many waterfalls I photographed during our two weeks in Norway. You can find directions and photo hints for most of these on Photohound – a internet photographic guide site I’m partnering with. If you are interested in these waterfalls and more, also check out the European waterfall website, which catalogs waterfalls throughout Norway and the rest of Europe.
By the way, Photohound is beta-testing its website right now and is looking for photographers to help out. Check their site out, it really is outstanding.
Steinsdalsfossen
Latefossen
The Suitor (accross from the Seven Sisters), also called Friaren or Skågeflafossen
Unnamed waterfall on the river Gaula
Hellesyltfossen
Rjoandefossen also known as Roandefossen
Kjosfossen
Tvindefossen
Vøringsfossen and Tyssvikjofossen
Hardangervidda
Our trip has been challenged by wild weather, including the remnants of Tropical Storm Gabriella and Hurricane Dorian. The day we drove up to the Hardangervidda Plateau was no exception. We spent the night in Eidfjord (at sea level) and awoke to overcast skies. At least the constant rain from the night before was over. It rained on and off throughout the morning as we toured a couple local sights before heading up toward the Hardangervidda Plateau. When we reached Voringsfossen (about 700 meters above sea level), the weather started to break.
Voringfossen is an amazing set of waterfalls; reportedly the best known waterfall in Norway. The falls are about halfway up to the mountain plateau. Here water tumbles over 180 meters from several sides down into a narrow canyon. The view is amazing. The photo above does not do the scdne justice (even with capturing a bit of rainbow).
Leaving Voringfossen the road continues to up to the Hardangervidda (at an average elevation of 1,100 meters above sea level). This broad mountain plateau is above the tree line and is a land of high tundra hills and studded with lakes of all sizes. It is the highest plateau in Europe and home to a large wild reindeer herd (which we did not see). The drive across the plateau and back was spectacular, with the landscape changing with the changing weather conditions of overcast, light rain, snow storms, and sun breaks. I could have spent the whole day there with my camera, but the near freezing temperature and strong wind (plus a need to get to our hotel in Flam, several hours away) had us only staying on the plateau for a few hours. Here are few shots from Hardangervidda; enjoy!
Small lake on the Hardangervidda
Another lake on the Hardangervidda
Typical scene on the Hardangervidda
Old stone bridge on the Hardangervidda
Waterfall Hunting at Mount Rainier National Park
Several weeks ago, Tanya and I camped for a few days east of Chinook Pass. There are many Forest Service campgrounds along Highway 410 east of Chinook Pass, and these make a great basecamp for exploring the eastern side of Mount Rainier National Park if you don’t want to (or cannot get into) the campgrounds in the park itself. While there, I drove up to Chinook Pass for sunrise each morning to capture the rising sun on the mountain reflecting in Upper Tipsoo Lake. The first morning was cloudy, the second morning was foggy at the pass (but clear elsewhere), and finally on the third morning, I was able to capture a decent shot (the shot deserves a post of its own, I’ll post it soon).
Deer Creek Falls
On that first day, the overcast conditions persisted through the day, but lightened and became partly cloudy later in the day – though there was still no view of Rainier. However, the light overcast day was perfect for another photographic subject – waterfalls. The Visit Rainier website claims there are over 150 waterfalls in the park. The Park Service just says there are “many.” I venture there are several hundred. My go-to guide for Pacific Northwest waterfalls, the Northwest Waterfall Survey, lists 317 waterfalls in Pierce County, and the majority of these are in Mount Rainier National Park.
However, camping and traveling in a place with little to no cell service, calling up the Northwest Waterfall Survey to locate waterfalls to photograph was a non-starter. I needed to do it the old-fashioned way – look at a map. I had my Mount Rainier East Green Trails map, and I noticed a couple of water falls off Highway 123 near the Owyhigh Lakes trailhead. Though I had no idea whether these falls were visible from the trail, nor how photogenic they are, this seemed like a good destination.
The first one I visited was Deer Creek Falls, a short half mile down the trail. The view from the trail looks down onto the falls as is cascades through a small, steep canyon. The view makes the falls look larger than its stated height of 62 feet. It is quite scenic. A wide-angle lens is required to capture the full falls, with your tripod set right on the edge of the canyon cliff looking almost straight down. When you first arrive at the falls, there is a rope “barrier” (easy to step over) to encourage people not to get too close to the cliff edge, but I actually thought the view was better a bit further down the trail, past the end of the barrier.
From Deer Creek Falls, I continued down the trail to its intersection with the Eastside Trail. Heading north on the Eastside Trail, the trail crosses two bridges, one over Deer Creek right before its confluence with Chinook Creek, and the second over Chinook Creek just above the confluence. A small unnamed, unmapped waterfall (maybe it is too small to be considered a true waterfall?) is located on Chinook Creek just upstream from the second bridge. Though small, with a height of 5 to 10 feet, I liked the look of it with a clear green pool below the white water and spent about half an hour here photographing from various angles.
Small waterfall on Chinook Creek near confluence with Deer Creek.
Continuing north, the Owyhigh Lakes Trail splits off westward from the Eastside Trail. There are two more waterfalls a mile or so up the Owyhigh Lakes Trail, but I left those for another day and continued north on the Eastside Trail to find Lower Chinook Creek Falls, which can be viewed about a third of a mile past the trail junction where the trail makes its first switchback up the hill. The view is not very good, with plenty of trees in the way. I looked for a way down to the base of the falls, but decided it was too steep. The Northwest Waterfall Survey does suggest there are two possible routes, but one requires going considerably downstream and then back up to the falls wading in the creek itself, the other requiring a rope. Instead, I found a spot a short distance off the trail where I could get a good shot using my telephoto lens.
I needed to get back to camp soon, so I decided against hunting for waterfalls I hadn’t seen before and go to one last spot that is a proven winner that I have photographed several times before – Silver Falls. I hike back up the hill to the car and drove to the Silver Falls Trailhead, on Highway 123 just south of the Stevens Canyon turnoff and park entry station. It’s about a quarter-mile downhill to the falls. This is an amazing waterfall, big and powerful, on the Ohanapocosh River. Below the falls, the water is funneled into a narrow gorge with a foot bridge over the top. The best views, in my opinion, are from the trail on the east side of the bridge and from the large, flat rocks above the river on the west side in between the aforementioned viewpoint and the falls. The featured shot at the beginning of the blog is from this spot. You can also easily access the area on the west side near the top and above the falls. It you follow the trail north of the falls, there are several spots where you can get down by the river for more beautiful shots. The Ohanapocosh River, with its clear green and blue water, is perhaps the prettiest river in the park.
Lower Chinook Creek Falls
Here is the gorge below Silver Falls. I took this image several years ago.
This is a sample of the Ohanapocosh River above Silver Falls. This image was also taken several years ago.
joebeckerphoto 