Busy day at the Columbia River Gorge

coscorrosa · April 9, 2011

On a single day, my friend Koveh and I were able to hit Metlako, Punch Bowl, Elowah, Wahclella, Horsetail, Fairy, Wahkeena, Multnomah, and Latourell Falls. I've wanted to do this before the but the weather never cooperated, on this day it was overcast and raining the entire day which is perfect for waterfall photography (and not so good for the camera gear). I hope to repeat this trip in May when all the fresh green vegetation is out.

Here are photos of some of those falls, arranged in chronological order.

#1: Metlako Falls

#2: Upper Punch Bowl Falls

#3: The rushing waters of Eagle Creek

#4: Fog and steam along Eagle Creek

#5: Raging Elowah Falls

#6: Forest on the Elowah Falls trail

#7: Fairy Falls

#8: Latourell Falls

#9: Rainbow on the Columbia

redleash · April 9, 2011

Great stuff, Ron! That had to have been an incredible, but tiring, trip. I like #3 for the curved shapes of the water. I like #5 best overall--nice composition, great subject, and lovely colors. Well done!

Secluded Valley · April 9, 2011

So beautiful, as always, Ron. I love the rainbow shot; the colors are so strong.

Kristine

kdog · April 9, 2011

Pretty awesome stuff, Ron. Love that misty PNW. I like 5, 8 and 9 the best.

Sexy6Chick · April 9, 2011

Wow - just beautiful. It doesn't get much better than #9.

ront · April 10, 2011

WOW Ron, incredible photos!! That rainbow is spectacular!!

Ron

Cuong · April 10, 2011

You certainly know how to abuse your camera and come away with spectacular photos.

Cuong

coscorrosa · April 10, 2011

redleash wrote: »

Great stuff, Ron! That had to have been an incredible, but tiring, trip. I like #3 for the curved shapes of the water. I like #5 best overall--nice composition, great subject, and lovely colors. Well done!

Yeah, it was tiring (I had to drive 6 hours roundtrip too), but it's worth it. Next time I might even pack water while on the trails!

Yellowstonegirl wrote: »

So beautiful, as always, Ron. I love the rainbow shot; the colors are so strong.

Kristine

Thanks - the rainbow was really intense, we had seen another pair earlier in the day but weren't in place to photograph it. This one we saw and sped to a spot that would be good and only had a minute or so to photograph it before it disappeared.

kdog wrote: »

Pretty awesome stuff, Ron. Love that misty PNW. I like 5, 8 and 9 the best.

Thanks - nothing like a little condensation on the filter, you can either fight it or embrace it (with all the rain and waterfall spray it's a losing battle so I just live with it).

Sexy6Chick wrote: »

Wow - just beautiful. It doesn't get much better than #9.

Thanks!

ront wrote: »

WOW Ron, incredible photos!! That rainbow is spectacular!!

Ron

We were really lucky to be in the right place for that rainbow shot.

Cuong wrote: »

You certainly know how to abuse your camera and come away with spectacular photos.

Cuong

Thanks - cameras are meant to be abused, I just wish the 5DM2 was a little more robust like the 1D series

Marc Muench · April 10, 2011

Great show Ron!

squirl033 · April 10, 2011

great stuff as always, Ron. love the waterfalls,but my favorites here are the misty forest and the shot from Crown Point... marvelous!

bskaran · April 10, 2011

Great shots. 4 and 5 are my favorites.

bryanj87 · April 10, 2011

You never disappoint. 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 are really, really good.

Doug Solis · April 10, 2011

What are you the marathon man? Great series as always, you never disappoint. I like how you add in #3 , I have a bad habit of missing these smaller vignettes. It looks like Elowah falls has some new trees/limbs that are now in the stream or perhaps you just have a closer shot than I remember, just seems to be different than when I was there in Oct. # nine almost looks like a Sundog rather than a rainbow. Nice job man.

chrismoore · April 11, 2011

Nice job, Ron. I remember your post from this area same time last year and I think you did even better this time around!

coscorrosa · April 11, 2011

Marc Muench wrote: »

Great show Ron!

Thanks Marc - hopefully it'll be even better in 6 weeks

squirl033 wrote: »

great stuff as always, Ron. love the waterfalls,but my favorites here are the misty forest and the shot from Crown Point... marvelous!

I wish I could take credit for the rainbow but I was just lucky

bskaran wrote: »

Great shots. 4 and 5 are my favorites.

Thanks!

bryanj87 wrote: »

You never disappoint. 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 are really, really good.

Thanks for your diplomatic way of saying 1 and 2 suck ;-)

Doug Solis wrote: »

What are you the marathon man? Great series as always, you never disappoint. I like how you add in #3 , I have a bad habit of missing these smaller vignettes. It looks like Elowah falls has some new trees/limbs that are now in the stream or perhaps you just have a closer shot than I remember, just seems to be different than when I was there in Oct. # nine almost looks like a Sundog rather than a rainbow. Nice job man.

More like the half-marathon man, where the marathon is periods of walking 3-4mph with many breaks to take photos - not a terribly impressive athletic achievement

The impressive part is also driving 6 hours and doing it all on 3 hours of sleep!

And yes, Elowah Falls looked quite a bit different now than fall. One of the mossy trees that's overhanging the creek on the right was completely stripped of moss sometime in the last 6 months. There must have been some pretty crazy waterflow.