Falls

Drove east from Portland via the Historic Highway, which we'd been told would provide views of the gorge and of the many waterfalls which cascade down its southern cliffs. We certainly got both, with some incredible clifftop viewing followed by nearly too many great waterfall viewpoints, all either viewable from one's vehicle or within a few minutes' walk; the furthest traipse was to the Bridal Veil Falls (how original), which took Nene and I about 4 minutes down and about 8 back up. That is, that was the furthest until we reached Wahkeena Falls, which was shaping up as one-too-many 2-minutes-walk-to-the-viewing-area waterfall... but then we found:
1. A sign for Multnomah Falls, which we knew was the big spectacular waterfall of the vicinty, only half a mile east, and
2. A trail leading up past the Wahkeena Falls and across the cliff face, eastwards
We put the two together and came up with a short stroll, infinitely-preferable to yet another 2-minute drive/park/photograph/drive/etc mission.

As it turned out, the muddy trail climbed steeply, then climbed steeply, and then climbed steeply, through a series of switchbacks, eventually taking us 970 vertical feet over about half a horizontal mile, back to the top of the cliff. Our climb had been punctuated by a series of conversations about whether or not we should turn back now or soon, with "soon" winning the day each time. At the top we found a hiker, who gave us funny looks - possibly due to the unexpectedness of meeting people with funny accents, wearing jeans and street sneakers, at the top of a 1000ft cliff - but who obligingly told us the trail to Multnomah Falls led across the top of the plateau and down, 45 minutes' walk from where we were. We thanked him, then SOMEONE set off at a dead run. Along the muddy cliff-edge trail. In her jeans and street sneakers.

By the time we encountered our first people, halfway down the Multnomah Falls Trail, we were... somewhat disshevelled.

Not necessarily surprising that the Mexican kids decided to run with us (a taste of things to come?) but mild wonderment that their parents didn't object more strenuously. The kids gave up before we reached the bottom, where the main viewing area was (surprisingly, right next to the sizeable parking area), and we cut back across the face of the cliff, 0.5 miles back to Wahkeena Falls, to the van, and to heading east in search of a campground with a free site on the Saturday night of the first long weekend of summer, before dark fell.