What a wet hike. I thought that I could be near crazy when I took off on this hike on Tuesday morning with all the rain that we were having. It was typical Pacific Northwest rain and fog - so there weren't really any good views. And my camera lens got wet. Still, the temperature was alright, so I didn't feel too bad about wearing my rain layers.

This hike is very similar to the Multnomah Falls to Wahkeena Falls Loop hike I did back in March. After hiking up Multnomah Falls, I followed the Larch Mountain trail past the Wahkeena Trail cutoff to see how far I could go before running into a whole lot of snow. Turns out, it wasn't snow that turned me back, but water. There were numerous water crossings, and some were just a little too deep and too wide to do without waders. This little excursion added about .8 miles and about 300 feet of elevation. After making it back to the Wahkeena Trail, I stayed on the Wahkeena Trail to past Wahkeena Springs. The volunteer at the Visitors Center said that this was THE way to go, but I'm not so sure - I didn't even see the spring. It did add a little more elevation (about 100 feet) and a little less mileage than doing the Vista Trail shortcut. It also allowed me to see some of the alternate ways to get to Devil's Rest, which was the next day's destination, if there's not too much snow...

Note: I stopped back by the visitors center after my hike to let them know that there's a portion of the Wahkeena trail that had been washed away just below the falls - my photoset will show this. My guess is that it'll be a while before they let people up there again...

Video of Wahkeena Falls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC2UTWbTt9A