Lower Falls Hike and Iron Mike (Labor Day)

 

We’ve been camping at Beaver campground ever since I can remember. We thought this time it would be fun to see something new. So I brought my hiking book and we found this nearby hike. I talked my mom and dad into coming along. I was worried that it wouldn’t be worth the hike. (It’s a gamble taking kids for a 3.4  mile round trip hike.) But it was SO worth it! The forest was full of HUGE old growth trees, there was a suspension bridge, and the falls were HUGE! I would go as far as to say they are better than Multnomah Falls. They just take more work to see.

 

My dad showed the girls what Huckleberries are, and they were in heaven! They spent much of the hike eating these juicy berries.

These pictures DO NOT do this fall justice! This is the middle section.

 

My Dad and Casey hiked down a little and this is a shot of the lower portion of the falls. The light was so bright and beautiful, coming through the trees, and filtered. So cool to see, so hard to photograph!

  

This is a fall or stream that runs in the spring. But right now it is a HUGE dry riverbed of moss covered rocks.

So here’s Iron Mike. It’s a mineral spring. There was a 3 story hotel out here in the early 1900’s that people would stay at to drink the water. They believed it was medicinal. The hotel burned down in 1934, and there is nothing left of it. But this is the stream from the spring. It is all orange from the iron in the water.

There is a pump there also so you can taste the water. It is kind of carbonated. It’s like licking a battery. Not very good. Not gross in a throw up way, but just not good. The kids were very intrigued that water could taste like that.