Here's a slideshow from Linn County's McDowell Creek Falls County Park, near Sweet Home, OR. The park's waterfalls have appeared here already:
I'm not sure if this area is technically part of the Cascades or not, but the moss-covered trees tell us the park gets a lot of precipitation. It's not quite as rainforesty as the Olympic Peninsula, say, but it still makes for some interesting photos. Or at least I thought they were interesting.
Today's adventure takes us to another waterfall in McDowell Creek County Park, near Lebanon, Oregon. Majestic Falls is the main event in the park; it turns out to be only 39 feet high, but it's quite attractive, and it's my clear favorite of the four in the park (the others being Royal Terrace Falls, Crystal Pool Falls, and Lower McDowell Creek Falls). Royal Terrace Falls is substantially taller, but had nearly run dry when I was there, so it's possible I might think more highly of it if I ever go back on a rainy day in mid-March, say.
My opinion is also colored by the fact that these photos came out better than the ones at the other falls. That's partly due to not having a lot of direct sun messing up exposure, and partly due to the nice, stable observation deck that made it easy to take longer-exposure photos. I would have posted these right away, but after I got home I noticed there were a couple of very conspicuous specks of sensor dust right on several of the photos, such that I would have to retouch them before posting. That's an annoying bit of drudgery, and I ended up dropping the photos in a To Retouch folder, and a post in Drafts, and a new item on my humble blog TODO list, and dropped the matter, um, temporarily. That was back in October, 2010. I wouldn't last long in the internet breaking news business, I guess that's what I'm trying to say here.
I've mentioned this over on Twitter before but I'm not sure I've done so here: A lot of people I know set aside the month of November to try to write a novel in 30 days. Others are growing moustaches for prostate awareness. My goal is simply to end the month with an empty blog Drafts folder. The last time I had that was many moons ago, so it does feel like sort of an ambitious goal. Maybe not as ambitious as writing a novel, but I like to think it's a somewhat more intellectual goal than growing facial hair would be. Although some readers (or former readers) might dispute that assessment. In any case, there are 10 days left in the month and I'm down to single digits in Drafts, so I just might hit the goal yet. Wish me luck.
And here are a few photos of Lower McDowell Creek Falls, part of Linn County's McDowell Creek Falls County Park, east of Lebanon, OR. As you can see, it's really pretty small, not something you'd really go out of your way to see. But it's right next to the trail through the park, so you'll pass it on your way to Royal Terrace Falls, Crystal Pool Falls, and Majestic Falls, and the rest of the park. So if you're there to look at waterfalls, you might as well stop by so you've collected the whole set, so to speak.
The one tip I have to offer about the park as a whole is that if you go during the summer, there may not be a lot of water going over the falls. Most of the photos of this waterfall you'll see out on the net show much more water going over it, like this one, this one, and this one. You might also enjoy this 360 degree VR panorama at the falls at Whole Reality Photography.
So here's another set of waterfall photos from McDowell Creek County Park, down in Linn County near Sweet Home. Crystal Pool Falls is not the main event at the park; I think it's about third highest of the four in the park, and there wasn't a well-maintained path to get close to the falls, nor was there a good place to set up my mini-tripod. And as I mentioned in my Royal Terrace Falls post, I visited at the wrong time of year and at the wrong time of day, so there wasn't enough water and the light was all wrong. In short, yeah, I already know these photos aren't so fabulous.
So, as before, I'll be happy to point you at a few quality photos of the falls, from pdxrose, Jeff Fennell, Just Peachy!, Konejita, and LiefPhotos. Enjoy!
A few photos of Royal Terrace Falls, in Linn County's McDowell Creek County Park, a few miles NNE of Sweet Home, OR. It's a rather attractive waterfall, and these are far from the best photos of it you'll see on the interwebs. The key problem is that in mid-July there just isn't a lot of water flowing over the falls, even in a cool wet year like this. The light was a problem too. Noon is rarely a good time to take photos, period, and when noon means bright sunlight from directly above and behind the waterfall, that tends to be a rather bad thing.
So we've established that I went at the wrong time of year, and the wrong time of day. But I'm just happy I finally managed to get to McDowell Creek at all. The park had been on my TODO list for a couple of years, and it's far enough away that I can't just go and do it on a whim before work some morning. So places like this are what staycations are for, assuming you define "stay" somewhat loosely.
A miscellany of useful links:
And some of those better photos I mentioned earlier: On Flickr: Photosets by Lhtnup & Cliff Zener, individual photos by Dave Putzier, Michael Karr and Ed Hodney. You'll quickly note that all of these photos show vastly more water going over the falls than mine do.
Elsewhere on the interwebs, you might also enjoy Some photos from Cee's Photo Art, A PBase gallery by fotabug, A 2007 photo from the State Archives, and a photo from nuffer.name
Ralph Friedman's "In Search of Western Oregon" mentions the falls, and includes a vintage (or now-vintage) photo. I'm embedding that page here instead of just linking to it, merely because I've never done that before:
