Fairy Falls & Wahkeena Canyon
OregonHikers.org: Fairy Falls
Fairy Falls is a veil type waterfall along an unnamed spring-fed side-creek in Wahkeena Canyon. Hikers traveling the Wahkeena Trail will cross the creek just in front of the falls on a makeshift plank footbridge. The intimacy of the oft-photographed setting more than makes up for the lack of majesty of the falls themselves. At twenty feet high, it is downright paltry compared to dozens of Columbia River Gorge cousins, but it continues to have tremendous appeal for visitors. The falls fan out as it dribbles down the rock-face like an ostentatious hotel lobby water feature, then quaintly trickles some thirty feet downstream to meet Wahkeena Creek. When the summer sun hits the falls just right, the cascade is said to glow, hence its original name "Ghost Falls". Despite maintaining a fairly constant volume year round, Fairy Falls can become a torrent after seasonal rains.
For some hikers too eager to turn around at Lemmons Viewpoint, but perhaps too unsure to travel too much further uphill, Fairy Falls makes for a nice compromise as a spot to about-face.
OregonHikers.org: Fairy Falls
Wahkeena Canyon
OregonHikers.org: Wahkeena Canyon
Wahkeena Canyon is a narrow defile carved into Columbia River Basalt flows by Wahkeena Creek. The canyon is just wide enough for the creek and the trail.
Wahkeena Creek is a very unusual and completely isolated body of water. It arises from two copious springs and immediately begins to tumble downhill. The entire creek is less than a mile long, and it loses about 1200' in that distance. Wahkeena Falls creates a barrier that restricts fish from coming upstream. This is an isolated ecosystem containing at least three animals found no where else in the world, the Wahkeena Falls flightless stonefly (Nanonemoura wahkeena), the Wahkeena Creek caddisfly (Neothremma andersoni), and the Wahkeena Creek amphipod (Stygobromus wahkeenensis), a small subterranean shrimp-like crustacean described in 2001. This is also the chilly realm of the Cascade torrent salamander (Rhyacotriton cascadae).
If the endangered critters are hard to locate, the natural beauty is obvious. The water is everywhere to be seen, heard, felt and smelled. The 2017 Eagle Creek Fire scorched this canyon, but the lush understory is rebounding quickly.
OregonHikers.org: Wahkeena Canyon