Multnomah Falls

More than two million people a year stop at Multnomah Falls, making it the most visited natural recreation site in the Pacific Northwest. The attraction is a 620-foot (189 m) drop down a basalt cliff on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, the tallest waterfall in Oregon. The water falls in two steps. The upper tier plunges 542 feet (165 m) into a pool, and after a short slide the lower tier drops another 69 feet (21 m). Unlike many gorge waterfalls, it never runs dry, because underground springs on Larch Mountain feed Multnomah Creek all year, with snowmelt and rain adding volume in winter and spring.

The falls are a product of catastrophe. About 15,000 years ago, the Missoula floods tore down the Columbia and scoured the gorge walls, leaving side creeks like this one hanging above the river. A weaker zone of basalt at the base of the upper fall explains the two-step drop. The stone Benson Bridge, paid for by lumberman Simon Benson, spans the falls 105 feet (32 m) above the lower pool, and Multnomah Falls Lodge opened in 1925. In 1995 a 400-ton boulder broke loose and crashed into the upper pool, and in 2017 the Eagle Creek Fire forced months of closures.

• The Columbia River
  The great river of the Pacific Northwest flows into
• Columbia River Gorge
  The great river’s cut through the Cascade Range located in
• Oregon
  The Beaver State, from rainforest coast to high desert located in
• Historic Columbia River Highway
  The waterfall drive through the Gorge near
• Portland
  A Pacific Northwest city where two rivers meet near
• Snoqualmie Falls
  Sacred Snoqualmie site and early hydropower landmark east of Seattle related