Panther Creek Falls and Beacon Rock

Today was a fun day.  We started out going back towards our walk of yesterday, when we went to see Falls Creek Falls but not as far.  Our destination was Panther Creek Falls which we had tried to locate late yesterday afternoon but gave up.  Got better instructions and headed back to find it.  This time we only passed it by 1/2 of a mile before turning around and finding the small placard by the roadside.  The weird part is that we had the windows open and we could hear the falls but could not find the parking area until we turned back around.

Don't blink - you will miss the sign

But we still did not see someone's painted post on the ground.  Dah.

Nice quick little jaunt down to the river, the falls were peaking out at us as we descended.  And wow.  Beautiful!  Some of the falls’ water was leaking out of the side of the rocks - some water was flowing swiftly from the right.  Very pretty.

The rocks were so smooth from the flow of the water - looked like glass

Drove back down to the Columbia River and headed westbound to find Beacon Rock State Park.  There is a large volcanic rock that stands sentinels on the Washington side and Lewis and Clark had noted this rock in their journals.  The first time moving westward to the ocean they called it Beaten Rock but changed the name to Beacon Rock on the return trip in 1806.

Pretty

Zoomed in - top part of falls

And bottom part of falls

Evidence of bear activity

Okay - lots of switchbacks - 53 to be exact.  And 14 bridges to cross to get to the top.  History of ownership of the rock - purchased by Henry Biddle in 1915, over 3 years of building walk paths and handrails, was donated to the State of Washington in 1935 by his son and daughter.  The ironic part of this story is the Biddles’ ancestor, Nicholas Biddle, was the person who edited the first edition of the Lewis and Clark journals in 1814. Huh.

There's Beacon Rock

Going to head up there

I read that right - 53 switchbacks.

So, up we went.  Hugging the cliff, higher we go.  I kept hearing my sister say in my ear  - hell no.  But we kept climbing.  The area right near the top was not fun - very rocky and tough on my foot, but I was so near, kept going.  Handrails all the way, thank goodness. The view from certain points on the way up and back down was fabulous.  At the top - trees blocked our view, but we did it!  2 miles round trip, yeah! Even the placard at the top said congratulations!  Yippee.

Nice pleasant start to the hike

First bridge to cross

Okay. Thank goodness for handrails!

Almost to the top

Bonneville Dam and Lock in background

Almost there

Phew - made it!

And back down we go.  This section was really bad for me.

Looking southward - Columbia and lots of fishing boats

Going down.

Looking westward - Vista Point is right at edge on left side
look at middle of picture

We really were hugging the side

Between the Panther Creek Falls and climbing to the top of Beacon Rock, we checked off all that we wanted to do in this area.  Almost time to move again.

Back at the bottom looking up.