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A few pics of "The Pool of the Winds", a little spot out in the Gorge with a melodramatic name straight out of a cheesy fantasy novel. It's an upper segment of Rodney Falls, on the Washington side near Beacon Rock. The water's carved sort of a bowl, almost a cylinder, into the rock. The water falls in from the top, spilling around a log that somehow ended up here. The water and mist rush out of a narrow gap in one side, and the rough cylindrical shape seems to amplify the noise.
This post has been lurking in my 'drafts' pile for quite a while (as in "3 months to the day"), for a couple of reasons. First, I'm not really thrilled with these photos. The only viewpoint is right next to the pool, and my little point-n-shoot digicam isn't wide-angle enough to capture things properly. I either didn't have my handy wide-angle conversion lens with me, or I hadn't bought it yet. I don't recall clearly now, but I think it was the latter, which got me on the path of buying all sorts of photo doodads. So I guess I may have the pool to thank for that.
If you'd like to see some better photos than these, here are a few I ran across on the interwebs: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. And here's a video clip if you're interested.
Second, besides the photos, I don't really have all that much to say about the place. It's a short spur off the trail up Hamilton Mountain, so it's probably worth a quick look if you're there anyway. I saw the name "Pool of Winds" (the 'the' seems to be optional) while trolling the interwebs and decided I had to go check it out. And really the name's the best part, as it turns out. In fact, further up the trail I remembered I'd actually been to Hamilton Mountain before, years ago, and the Pool of Winds just really wasn't that memorable. Oh, well. Great name, though. It's got that, at least.
So without further ado or delay, here are a few assorted links about the place.
- A page at dwlz.com, with lots of photos.
- Info at localhikes.com
- Oregon Hikers' Field Guide has pages on Hamilton Mountain and The Pool itself.
- Waterfalls Northwest
- TrailsNW
- NWHikers.net
- A post at rainy day knits
- Oh, here's another video clip. I found it was easiest to save locally and play from there, but YMMV.
3 comments :
wow that place is purrrdy. how cold/warm is that water? i wonder if people swim in it... :o
I think the water's pretty cold even in midsummer. Plus there's a huge waterfall just downstream, and a guardrail to prevent people from getting into the pool.
That doesn't mean nobody ever does, of course.
Hey, thanks for the great pics of the pool of the winds. Nice to be able to link people to your blog as bait to get them to drive all the way out here ;)
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