Though it was hard to break away from downtown Portland’s foodie haven, I needed something else to do besides stuffing my face all day. Bonus if it will burn any of the thousands of excess ingested calories. So, we headed out of town for a short half-day hiking trip.

Multnomah Falls is a 611 foot cascading waterfall, with hiking trails to the top, just 40 minutes from downtown Portland.

We left the hotel mid morning and quickly hit up Voodoo Doughnuts for a Maple Bacon Bar. Much needed energy. We didn’t want to arrive too late in the afternoon when the tourists were bound to be in abundance. But, thinking there was plenty of time, we opted to take the, slightly longer, scenic Old Historic Road in order to enhance our already beautiful drive.

When we arrived, parking was scarce. Damn. Should have skipped the donut. But, we were able to sneak into one of the last spots and headed toward the chateau-esque entry.

There are a few different paths to the waterfall, at several different levels, the easiest being a viewpoint right at the bottom. That wouldn’t burn off any donuts. Or the fattening pigeon dinner that I ate last night.

We decided to see the waterfall from the most popular location, the midpoint bridge, a short and relatively easy .2 mile walk. Maybe that pigeon was actually low fat, surely the donut was not.

We headed uphill along with dozens of other people who were toting cameras, strollers, dogs and backpacks. Bumping a few of them along the way.

Turns out Multnomah Falls is breathtaking from every angle. Every foot of the six hundred and eleven.

Even the one I had to giraffe stretch my neck above the crowds to see.

After spending a significant amount of time gawking, we head back downhill, against traffic.

It was difficult to reach a Zen-like state amongst the dozens of chattering tourists, but if they weren’t there my mind would have been at peace just listening to the running water.

We started the 35 miles back to Portland talking about the awe-inspiring views and that quickly turned into a discussion about where to eat for lunch. It somehow always comes back around to food.

Where is the best waterfall you have ever seen?

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