Revisit Eagle Creek's log-free Punchbowl Falls

Photographers and nature lovers are rejoicing as word spreads that a scenic icon of the Columbia Gorge has been restored to its former, more pristine and photogenic condition. Punchbowl Falls, two miles up the gorgeous Eagle Creek Trail, is now free of a huge diagonal tree trunk that has spoiled the view for over a decade. Once again, the Punchbowl is an image worthy of scenic calendars and coffee table books.

The trail beside Eagle Creek is spectacular ―and enormously popular. Built in the early 1900s as an adjunct to the then-new Columbia River Highway, the trail ascends one of the most beautiful, old growth canyons in the entire Northwest. It winds beneath towering moss-covered maples and firs, and crosses hair-raising cliffs of basalt on a tread so narrow and exposed that steel cables have been anchored for handholds. Generations of hikers, from neophytes to seasoned veterans, have tramped this famous trail, past dripping rock walls to inspiring viewpoints high above the creek.

Metlako, Loowit, Skooknichuck and Tunnel Falls are some of the standouts along the trail, but Punchbowl is the star waterfall. Located a little over two miles from the trailhead, it is the objective of a majority of hikers. Just short of the falls, hikers have the choice of taking a side trail down to the creek where, depending on the water level, they can either wade or balance on stepping stones to get the iconic view upstream into the Punchbowl. (The author waded in icy water two feet deep in early November to get the log-free photographs accompanying this article.) 

From the junction, ambitious hikers may continue upstream on the main trail past a top-down view of the Punchbowl to the slot canyon of High Bridge (3.3 miles) and all the way to Tunnel Falls (6 miles), where the trail builders had to bore a man-sized tunnel in the basalt cliff to get past a sheer section. The Eagle Creek Trail continues on for miles until it merges with the Pacific Crest Trail up near Wahtum Lake.

Eagle Creek is a hiking “must” but the trail gets downright crowded on weekends. If possible, schedule your hike for mid-week when you won’t be sidestepping families, lovebirds and dogs every 100 yards. Midweek, you might even see deer or a bald eagle high in one of the magnificent Douglas firs that populate the canyon. The big leaf maples put on a buttery show in the autumn, and look for mushrooms popping up among the ferns and salal. The trail is open year-round.

If anyone knows the circumstances of that ugly tree trunk finally disappearing from the Punchbowl, please let me know.

 To get to Eagle Creek drive eastward on Interstate 84 past Bonneville Dam to the Eagle Creek Exit #41. Turn right at the fish hatchery and continue along the creek for about a quarter mile to road’s end. Parking permits are required, and the limited number of parking spots are claimed early.