We have settled into a new campground in Oregon called Ainsworth State Campground which is a beautifully forested campground covered in wild blackberries which happen to be plump, juicy and ripe!! YAY!
We did have a little mishap just before we left Phillips Lake, OR. Just as we had everything packed and we were ready to go we went to put the slide out in. However when we hit the button…NOTHING. There was no sound, no nothing. UH-OH. So Honey goes to check it out and yep there was a problem. There’s a pin that holds the roller thing in the track thing (is that specific? LOL) which popped out of the hole thing!! So Honey being as handy as he is quickly figured out the problem and how to fix it. He remained calm and carried about his job of fixing the slide out all while the neighbors were sitting at the next campground staring. So he ended up jacking up the slide out, popped the pin in, let the jack down and slid the slide out in! YAY!!! From there we were on our way towards the Columbia Gorge River!
After an uneventful 5 hour drive we make it to camp. By the way for most of the drive we had the pleasure of the Columbia River as a view. The river is huge, giant and I’ve never seen such a big river. It was like watching a really long lake that never ends……really cool!
We easily find a spot in the camp and are in awe with the beauty of the forest. Our first full day we decide to take a hike to go see 3 of the waterfalls in the area. The trail from camp is just a few feet from our spot. So we load our camelbaks with water, snacks, first aid kit and camera and head out.
I don’t think I have ever seen such a beautiful place. The trail was wide and canopied by green leafed trees that put a persistent smile on your face and makes you feel like there is nothing else in the world but happiness. The feeling you get walking in the forest is one of motivation and a feeling of truly being able to accomplish whatever it is you need to in life. I don’t know if it’s the peaceful feeling you get being in the forest or if perhaps it’s an overload of green (coming from the desert this could happen to the best of us! hahaha lol) or even a sugar overload from all the wild berries but I do like it!!
On our hike we came across actually 4 waterfalls even though we called it the 3 falls hike. 
We hit Ponytail Fall first which was awesome shooting out of the mountain while walking under/behind it on the trail. Then we his Oneonta Falls which was beautiful falling into a little pool of water in its own little canyon. Next we hit Triple Falls which as you can guess has 3 falls in one! LOL Triple Falls has a wooden bridge that crosses the river so we hung out there for a bit checking out all the mini falls and clear pools of water. The last fall was Horsetail Falls which is quite a large waterfall in height and falls down again to its own pool of water right along the highway.
With all the water flowing in these forests it’s no wonder it is so green. We ended up doing a 7 mile hike in total which was a pretty decent hike considering we had a short-legged 8-year-old with us. JoeJoe enjoyed himself and couldn’t believe there are such places in the world. Of course being in the green green forest made him happy but not quite as happy as the “candy island” he made up in his mind and spent a half hour telling us about. kids and candy!! LOL
Below are the pictures of the hike!
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Aug 31, 2010 @ 18:07:37
Do they call it Horstail Falls because the water coming down looks like a horses tail? Beautiful, now I wanna go there. I have to decide if I want to go there bad enough to camp out. Are there hotels nearby? LOL
Sep 04, 2010 @ 19:25:20
LOL…I personally did not get the “horsetail” impression but I’m a little more in the gutter….I guess I can see how they’d come up with that. There are hotels in a few places close by. It’s actually about 30 miles or less outside of Portland. However you can stay in way cuter towns that have neat little hotels. It is well worth the visit.