Ponytail Falls

Hiking the falls in the Columbia Gorge is always fun and you never know what you’re going to see. Mom said we were going to stop at Horsetail Falls and I had my mind all made up that this is what we were going to see.

Silly me. I guess I wasn’t listening and missed the “Falls” part…

and I sure didn’t see any horses.Mr. N and I cavorted up the path through a series of switchbacks lined with basalt walls. We soon reached Upper Horsetail Falls, also called Ponytail Falls. The water fell into a pool (how I longed to take a dip) and the path went behind the falls!

                                 Have you ever been behind a falls?

Mom loves to know all this stuff about why we were behind the falls, so she said I could tell you. In very simple terms (that’s me, by the way), a basalt lava flow buried a softer layer of rock and soil. Then water and winter ice removed the softer material below, creating a cavern of sorts. And there we were! In the cavern.

Moving along, we hiked to a spot that overlooked the Columbia River

And found a nice spot to take a rest.