Today’s kayaking adventure took myself and a friend to Willamette Falls. “The Willamette Falls is a natural waterfall in the northwestern United States, located on the Willamette River between Oregon City and West Linn. It is the largest waterfall in the Northwest US by volume and it is the 17th widest in the world.” (Wikipedia)
OK! I’m excited. However, before we actually kayaked up to the falls, we had to start somewhere. We used the Sportcraft Landing in Oregon City. We arrived early in the morning and it was still difficult to find somewhere to park after we had unloaded our kayaks. However, the boat ramp was very nice.
Almost all of the single car parking spaces were already taken and I really think that had everything to do with the massive construction they are doing on the Abernethy Bridge. I looked it up online and this is the information I found.
The Abernethy Bridge construction project is ODOT’s largest construction project in over 45 years. When completed, this project will make the Abernethy Bridge the first earthquake-ready interstate bridge over the Willamette River in the Portland area. We are also improving on-and off-ramps near the bridge, along with making improvements to local bike and pedestrian routes.
i205corridor.org
Here are a few pictures I took of the construction. It’s truly massive. We spoke to someone who told us that it’s totally safe to kayak up to the Falls. He said to just stay away from the moving barges as the current can “suck” you in. Everything was idle today.
That is the largest barge we saw on the river today. As I mentioned, it was idle the entire time we were there. Fairly impressive in size!
This is a photo of the Abernathy Bridge (I-205). You can see from the photo all of the new support work they’ve done and then they’ve built extra pillars, which are hard to see in this picture. The whole project is massive. This is looking towards the west. The project goes back a long way towards the east as well.
After “oohing and aahing” appropriately, I was ready to kayak on to the falls. This was going to be my very first trip to the falls and I was very excited.
There were Canadian Geese everywhere we paddled. They weren’t very afraid of us and so that made it fun to watch them swim close by. As we got closer to the Falls, I loved the scenery. The vegetation growing along the cliffs and rocks was really beautiful! As you get closer to the Falls, you hear less and less of the traffic noise, your excitement gets higher to see the Falls, and you forget that you’re in a huge city. Perfect!
It was funny because as we approached the Falls, there were two fishing boats in the water. I asked one of them if he was having any luck. He then proceeded to “lecture” me about getting to close to the falls, something about capsizing and I don’t know what else. I just kept paddling.
I want to say this to everyone. For me personally, I am extremely comfortable on the water, flat water, wavy water, bumpy water, whatever. I have all kinds of experience. And lucky for me (HA!), I’ve capsized once (this past winter) and I handled the situation completely alone perfectly. So, what I want to say is that yes, you can paddle fairly close to the falls. But, if you lack the confidence, skill and ability to handle this type of water situation, then please don’t. You can see quite a bit of the falls back a little ways and not put anyone at risk. OK – I’m done with my “lecture.” Ha!
So, being the confident and experienced paddler that I am, I proceeded to paddle up just as far as I could. Here are the fantastic videos I captured.
This isn’t the “main” waterfall. As I got closer, I was able to see that the waterfall is actually very very wide. The main part is what you see straight ahead, but then starting to your right and winding all the way around there is water coming down as well. This was one of them.
This is Willamette Falls. The main and biggest part of the Falls is straight ahead. I was very impressed with how much water is coming down based on the time of year. I would love to go back in the Fall or early Winter and see the difference! When I think of the name, Willamette Falls, it’s 100% accurate here because it is plural. There’s water coming down everywhere! It was so incredibly impressive!
So, same picture, but I was able to paddle even closer. I could have paddled another 10-12 ft, but I decided it just wasn’t worth it. You can see the white water and I just didn’t want to fight with that. I was so very close. It was truly awesome! I’m so glad we went today. It was just perfect!
We then decided to go down the river a little ways and see what we could find. Well, there is a large campground on the right side, called Clackamette RV Park. Immediately after that is where the Clackamas River enters the Willamette River. We turned to go up the Clackamas. Once we turned, we must have seen over 100 Canadian Geese. They were everywhere!
The Canadian Geese weren’t very bothered by us. I especially loved the “albino” duck we saw. Cute! We continued on up the Clackamas until we reached the 99E bridge. At this point, we decided to turn around and head back. I thought the bridge was picturesque!
This was such an awesome experience! I’m so excited when I go somewhere I haven’t been before! I highly encourage you all to go check out Willamette Falls. Totally and completely worth it!! Have fun!
2024 – Kayak Trip #31
