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White River Falls (also known as Tygh Valley Falls) is a gorgeous and powerful multi-tiered waterfall within the rainshadowed Tygh Valley southeast of Mt Hood. The falls provides sightseers a great excuse to experience a substantial waterfall in scenery that is noticeably drier than its mossy, lush counterparts in the Columbia River Gorge. However, I think this waterfall generally gets more noticed by whitewater rafting and kayak enthusiasts who like to run the lowest waterfall and continue the whitewater rush further downstream.
From the car park, there's a viewing area in just a few paces. However, this viewpoint is only of the upper waterfall. We noticed a path leading further down the gorge past a footbridge that afforded us access to a viewpoint where we could look directly at the middle tiers of the falls in addition to the uppermost tiers. It turns out that this path leads to some hydro building near the bottom of the descent.
However, there are some previously worn sections of trail unofficially branching from the main path leading to a few outcrops with a more direct view of all the main tiers of the waterfall. We were content with the views from here, but I've seen Webshots of this waterfall from a precarious outcrop higher up the gorge looking straight down at the falls (I'm not sure I'd try that) as well as with kayakers down below (as alluded to earlier on this page).
Directions: We drove here by heading east on I-84 to The Dalles (rhymes with "the Pals"), then heading south on Hwy 197 before continuing east on Hwy 216. This drive was roughly 60 miles from Hood River, and is thus a fair bit outside the waterfall-saturated Columbia River Gorge.
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Swimming Hole (White River Falls)
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My cousins and I lived on State Hwy. 216, just a mile or so east of the park entrance in 1978 and 1979. We frequently went to the falls during the hot ...
My cousins and I lived on State Hwy. 216, just a mile or so east of the park entrance in 1978 and 1979. We frequently went to the falls during the hot summer...[more]
Northwest Waterfall Survey
Curly Creek Falls appears to have been partially channeled into a sink between the bridge on FR 90 and the falls. It flows well during the spring and early melt season, but...[more]
Shoshone Falls
Shoshone Falls on the Snake River near Twin Falls, Idaho is truly spectacular during the mid-April to mid-May high season. The river plunges...[more]
Two Spectacular Falls
Diamond falls is a bit of a hike in. I didn't measure it but it felt like 2 miles. There were several nice view points on the walk in showing the surrounding hills...[more]
Further on the Eagle Creek Trail
Next time you are in Oregon and have a day to devote to Eagle Creek, I would highly recommend making the trek to Tunnel Falls...[more]
Loowit Falls, Mt St Helens, Washington
Picture of Loowit Falls, Mt St. Helens, Washington...[more]