Good morning, glory!
We found a campground last night in the dark while driving south from St. Helens.
We got up early and drove into Hood River to have breakfast before making our way south to Bend.
Crossing Cold Spring Creek.
While driving south on Highway 35 (which was heavily damaged by floods on the Hood River from the big winter), I saw a trailhead sign for Tamanawas Falls. We decided to break up the drive with a hike up to the falls, which is four miles round-trip.
The trail crosses the east fork of the Hood River and then parallels it for a half-mile. You then cross Cold Spring Creek and follow it up to the falls.
Cold Spring Creek
The trail climbs gently along the creek. I don’t know if mountain bikes are allowed, but it’s too rocky and twisty to be any fun on a bike.
A rare break from the trees.
There’s a short section where a rockfall wiped out part of the trail, and a new trail was cleared.
Tamanawas Falls
Tamanawas Falls is 150’ high. It thunders in the spring with the snow runoff, but in late fall it’s much more subdued.
It’s a typical Oregon waterfall, a basalt overhanging cliff.
Tumalo State Park campground
We arrived at Tumalo State Park expecting it to have plenty of sites available on a weekday afternoon, but found it 99.5% full due to a big mountain bike race coming up.
We lucked into the only available site when someone cancelled their reservation. Surprisingly, it’s the only campground within twenty miles of Bend.
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