Triple Falls and Herman, the Sturgeon

Saturday's adventure began with a valiant effort to hike along a picturesque wooden path adjacent to a beautiful gorge that I found on Pinterest. Unfortunately, after driving an hour to the picture's title (the supposed location, the Oneonta Gorge) and realizing the stream was way too high to hike, I also clicked the Pinterest picture and realized it was the image of another gorge in Slovenia. WHY, PINTEREST, WHY??! Lucky for us, there are many beautiful hikes in Oregon that can be found simply by pulling to the side of the road adjacent to trailhead markers, which is how we found the trail to Triple Falls. We came prepared with our rain suits (a.k.a. rain jacket and rain pants), waterproof hiking boots, and Merino wool socks. Nothing says adventure like hiking in the rain! The trail started out as a switchback but soon became flatter and curved around the mountain toward the gorge. After a short while, it split into two and we could either take the road to 1) Horsetail Falls or 2) Triple Falls. Triple Falls was only 1.2 miles away and sounded like a better option, given the distance we wanted to hike. The trail became steeper and rockier, but not too difficult for two young kids like ourselves.. Our quads were starting to hurt when the path leveled out again. The exciting thing about hiking in the Pacific Northwest is the scenery. No matter what your destination, you'll inevitably be immersed in the greenery of your surroundings and will sometimes forget what you were heading toward in the first place. The journey really is just as exciting as the destination.

Eventually, we made it! 100% worth the hike!

There was even a little bridge just past the falls that we found as we continued past the major viewpoint for Triple Falls. The little grove just past the bridge would have been a perfect lunch spot if it wasn't as rainy and cold as it was. We stood for a minute eating trail mix and overlooking the gushing stream and then headed back to our car. The hike back went much more quickly than the hike there.

*check out how awesome that mossy tree is behind me!

...

After hiking to Triple Falls, I wasn't ready for our adventure to end and convinced Charlie that we should continue driving up the Columbia Gorge. It was worth it: we drove up to Bonneville Dam, checked out the fish ladders, and then went to the fish hatchery. As expected, the dam looked pretty awesome. Unfortunately, it's not the right time of year to check out fish ladders so, even though we only saw one fish, it was a great preview as to what we should expect come June. The fish hatchery, on the other hand, was likely what one might expect to see regardless of the season. Hello salmon!

A ranger at the fish ladders had told us that one of the highlights was at the hatchery year-round: Herman, the Sturgeon! Definitely not a fish I would want to encounter while swimming, but definitely worth seeing!! (picture for scale):

(Herman, the Sturgeon!):

All in all, it was a day that went differently than we had planned, but that's how some of the best adventures happen.