Latourell Falls

Yesterday when it wasn't quite so hot we went into the Columbia Gorge to look at waterfalls. I'm not sure anything is quite so impressive as a waterfall. I just love them. We hiked to upper Latourell Falls. It's a little under a mile uphill to get there, so in lower 70 degree weather we were quite sweaty when we arrived at the falls, and I was very delighted to see that the trail leads you right up to the pool so you can actually get in the fall if you wanted to. And I wanted to very much. But I had tennis shoes on my feet, not great for wading considering you have to hike a mile back out again. And at that point it started to rain, and Mike wanted to get out of the Gorge before we drowned or something, so I made a note to bring river shoes with me next time and then I will walk into the pool.

In So Cal, there are waterfalls with pools you can walk in to, but they are tiny or not very picturesque. The most recent one I can think of is one in Monrovia. We went there and it was very crowded at the teeny tiny fall, and there were lots of people "in" the water, which was more like a puddle, so it's not like they were swimming, and though I was very hot I felt that it would be very anti-climactic and boring to try to get in the waterfall.

Then I remember another fall in the Santa Monica mountains, I think, where the trail goes right up to the falls...this one I did not get into either, again, being fully clothed it would have been uncomfortable to hike out. But it was also very deep water and I'm more about wading in the pool than diving in the pool. There were some kids there that day that were climbing rocks and diving in. I just watched them for a while.

But here it is more amenable to walking up to the fall and getting wet. Next time I will. I hope it's not too cold that day. Maybe next weekend. I have to remember that I live here now, and I can go to these places any day.