OT Oregon's Waterfall World

I thought some of you might be interested in a future tour of Oregon waterfalls. Here's some key learnings from my 9 days in Oregon.

18 hr drive from Denver to the Columbia River Gorge. 80 mph soloed limit in utah, a miserable 55mph limit in Oregon.

Two nice campgrounds that provide perfect access to days of waterfall photography. They fill up on weekends but it's easy to pick up a site sun- thurs. No reservation now. However starting April 15, 2015 these campgrounds will be taking reservation. I preferred Wyatt Campground vs the much busier Eagle Creek campground. Eagle has slightly better access. However Wyatt allows direct walking access to Gorton Creek, where Emerald Falls resides. There is internet access at both campgrounds.

Bring rain gear. Bring plastic bags to protect your camera on a tripod. Bring sandals on every outing to wade through water. If you have micro spikes bring em. They really assist in gripping the slick creek bottom.

Waterfall scenes are fairly easy to capture. A lot easier than grand scenic scenes where you have to have clouds to fill in the negative space above.


Myth, waterfalls have to be photographed in cloudy low light conditions. Sure Oregon is often cloudy and waterfalls are easily photographed in said conditions, but most of my best images came on clear days in the morning or evening when the sun was low enough where the filtered beams of light would beam through onto a falls scene.

You would need a solid two weeks of morning and evening photography to capture all the waterfalls in the Gorge area. A little pre planning goes along way in making your trip productive. However it's not impossible to just show up there and figure out where all these falls reside. Most of them are right off the hwy. I stayed away from super iconic waterfalls. I suppose Ponytail Falls would qualify as a touristy falls but we made that trip in the middle of the cloudy day I between a morn shoot of Elowah and evening shoot of Wahclella.

Must sees, Columbia River Gorge.

Wahclella.
Mossy Grotto. If you can find it.
Elowah
Gorton Creek

Panther Falls, upper and lower, located across the river in Washington was pure magic.

Abiqua Falls, two hrs south of the Gorge is amazing.

Proxy Falls was my favorite, located about 5 hrs south of Portland. Free campground one mile from Proxy.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

Here's my gallery.


http://www.kaephotography.com/gallery/waterfalls/

Superb and impressive collection! . I was there about 14 years ago in the days of film so definitely would like a return visit.

Indeed, a fantastic collection, with superior post processing as usual. Your post was quite timely as I have been assembling my wish list of waterfalls to visit. Kane, I really appreciate you spending the time to provide the write-up of your trip. It certainly will help my planning efforts.
In regards to timing, any one particular time of year the best? I suspect June since there actually might be sun and the waterfalls would have a decent flow?

Hi Ken, I went out there in mid June and wished I was there about a month earlier. The flow for most falls was just fine, but a few very important scenes, like Mossy Grotto and Gorton Creek were running too low for optimal photography. Most workshops run from mid April to mid May. I found Proxy Falls flow to be really nice in mid June.

Wow Kane - these are simply awesome !!

Really nice series Kane! Glad I checked it out!

Excellent series, Kane. I've only been up there once and have had a return trip high on my list. Your shots aren't helping me push it farther down. Proxy and Panther Creek were also a couple of my favorite spots there. Special locations.

Hi Josh, I met Mark Hespinheide up there for about half my trip and I remember him saying you loved Panther Falls. Did you hike down to the lower falls? Also, I would highly recommend Abiqua Falls, since its on the way to Proxy. Its only 2.5 hrs from the Gorge and the drive is very pretty. If you have high clearance you can drive to within about 1/2 mile from the falls. Plus the parking area makes for great car camping. In fact, there's a bunch of free camping all the way down to the mentioned parking area.

Kane, I really enjoyed Panther Creek falls. I did scramble down and took some shots from below the upper falls, but not of the lower ones. Seems like I couldn't find a good route or was sketched out from the scramble down or something, I don't remember. Also didn't make it to Abiqua, but likely will on a return trip. Thanks for the info on it. If you didn't get to Ramona Falls or Pup Creek Falls, put them on your next visit list. Ramona gets spot lighting through the trees in the afternoon, makes for a great effect.

Really wonderful set, Kane. My eyes always light up when I see a Portland Company on my travel schedule cause I know I can take a couple extra days and hit the Gorge.

What an incredible collection Kane! Every one of these is excellent. Abiqua Falls looks really cool, and nice version of Proxy with the foreground log. Again, all are top of the line!

Great stuff, Kane. I remember thinking that we'd just entered some wild, prehistoric place where dinosaurs still roam when we caught our first view of Wahclella Falls. Just crazy amazing. Really nice work from your trip!

Not too shabby, Kane. I really like 'the journey''--nice light and perspective there.

Brett, Of all the falls I visited Wahclella surprised me the most. It's a lot more beautiful than I expected.

Damn Kane, that is the best collection of images I've seen from there! Can't even pick a favorite, each one is as good as the next.

Fantastic collection, Kane. I have yet to photograph the northwest, but when I do I'll be using your post info and gallery for information and inspiration. Glad it was such a productive trip!

Awesome work! I was going to pick a favorite but it's impossible. Though I'd say "Embrassing Abiqua" stands out as being especially striking.

Lots of really impressive photos here! Makes me want to get back there after my all-too-brief visit several years ago.