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.
