Devil's Punch Bowl in the Columbia Gorge-Oregon

No trip to the Columbia Gorge in Oregon is complete without a hike up popular Eagle Creek. The moment you enter the well-groomed path, you are swallowed in green.

Chatty smaller streams join the run through the majestic forest. The drop-off naturally becomes more precipitous as you climb up canyon. Often the trail narrows to a ledge with a well-placed handrail to steady your nerves. Sprays of pink and white flowers nestled in ferns cling to the basalt canyon walls, and around each bend is another stunning view of the deepening chasm.

Devils Punch Bowl is the first of three falls along the way to High Bridge, our lunch destination. Rock walls deep in the canyon are matted with mosses, ferns, and lichens. With abundant life all about, I felt refreshed, soothed, restored, and deliriously happy to be here. Four-miles in, we crossed over a heart-catching cleft in basalt walls with black water flowing far below. At our lunch stop I shed my boots and dangled my dogs in the tingling water while our guides laid out a delicious spread. Heaven can wait! I'm busy. For more on this adventure to to New England Hiking Holidays.

Columbia Gorge/Mt. Hood Up Close and Personal

Evan and Kristin make it to Oneonta Gorge

Kristin and Evan are a delightful couple from Arizona that joined me on a hiking adventure with New England Hiking Holidays in the Columbia Gorge/Mt. Hood region of Oregon. I am working on articles about this wonderland of waterfalls that will appear soon, but for immediate gratification click go to Kristin's photo album on Facebook

Evan wanted to see the Oneonta Gorge which requires swimming in a mountain stream fed by snowfields in the Cascade Mountains. I take credit for saving Kristin’s life when she slipped and nearly fell into a chasm getting her Nat. Geo. shot.  (Note shot of scraped leg.) Nothing went un-documented. Great fun had by all lucky enough to take this Oregon trip offered by NEHH each year in June when the flowers are in full swing and the mountain air is scintillating.

I am  wearing California Yellow