Paulina Falls
Wow, it's been almost two weeks already since we hiked at Paulina Falls in the Oregon Cascades. I've been so busy with various trips- two for work, two for fun- that's how backlogged I've gotten. Anyway, now it's time for Paulina Falls!
Paulina Falls is in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Central Oregon. It's fairly close to where we hiked the evening before, at the Big Obsidian Flow (yes, that's it's official name). We saw the trail sign and agreed, "We want to go there!" Alas when we finished the obsidian flow trail it was already after sunset and too late to start another hike. So we came back the next morning from Bend.
It's kind of a shame we didn't have time to hike these falls the evening before. The trail to them is so short; an extra half hour of daylight would've been enough. The view above of the double falls from the top of the rim is just 150 meters from the parking lot.
Looking down at the pair of 50 foot drops and ooh-ing and aah-ing was enough for several of our fellow visitors that morning but not for us. You know us; there were trails to other viewpoints around the falls, and we hiked them.
A more strenuous trail zig-zags down the side of the canyon, below the falls and below the significant rock pile of boulders at their base. BTW, there's an even more strenuous route than the hiking trail. Note in the picture below that a climber is rappelling down the side of the left falls!
Below the falls it's necessary to look up to see them. Not just because we're at the bottom of the falls (duh) but because we're actually well below them. At the base of the falls is a pile of boulders over 100' tall. (You can't see it all in the picture above because I've cropped a lot of it out.)
Geologists estimate this pile was created 2,000 years ago when an enormous flood tore through the canyon. The flood may have been driven by volcanic activity displacing water out of the lake farther upstream, or it may have been caused by a natural dam of soft earth breaking open. Either way, water flowed through here at up to 500x the current rate, eroding the softer stone layer at the base of the falls. Sheets of rock from the firmer layer above tumbled over like dominoes as their support disappeared. The boulders below are the detritus of that layer above. In a short period of time the falls "moved" 200 feet upstream.
Next in this trip: Horsetail Falls on the Columbia River Gorge.
Paulina Falls is in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in Central Oregon. It's fairly close to where we hiked the evening before, at the Big Obsidian Flow (yes, that's it's official name). We saw the trail sign and agreed, "We want to go there!" Alas when we finished the obsidian flow trail it was already after sunset and too late to start another hike. So we came back the next morning from Bend.
It's kind of a shame we didn't have time to hike these falls the evening before. The trail to them is so short; an extra half hour of daylight would've been enough. The view above of the double falls from the top of the rim is just 150 meters from the parking lot.
Looking down at the pair of 50 foot drops and ooh-ing and aah-ing was enough for several of our fellow visitors that morning but not for us. You know us; there were trails to other viewpoints around the falls, and we hiked them.
A more strenuous trail zig-zags down the side of the canyon, below the falls and below the significant rock pile of boulders at their base. BTW, there's an even more strenuous route than the hiking trail. Note in the picture below that a climber is rappelling down the side of the left falls!
Below the falls it's necessary to look up to see them. Not just because we're at the bottom of the falls (duh) but because we're actually well below them. At the base of the falls is a pile of boulders over 100' tall. (You can't see it all in the picture above because I've cropped a lot of it out.)
Geologists estimate this pile was created 2,000 years ago when an enormous flood tore through the canyon. The flood may have been driven by volcanic activity displacing water out of the lake farther upstream, or it may have been caused by a natural dam of soft earth breaking open. Either way, water flowed through here at up to 500x the current rate, eroding the softer stone layer at the base of the falls. Sheets of rock from the firmer layer above tumbled over like dominoes as their support disappeared. The boulders below are the detritus of that layer above. In a short period of time the falls "moved" 200 feet upstream.
Next in this trip: Horsetail Falls on the Columbia River Gorge.