Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls, a two-tier waterfall on Multnomah Creek in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, drops 620 feet over basalt cliffs, making it the state’s tallest waterfall and one of the gorge’s best-known landmarks. Formed about 15,000 years ago by the Missoula floods, it is fed year-round by springs on Larch Mountain, with added snowmelt and rain. Long significant in Multnomah tradition and noted by Lewis and Clark in 1805, it became a major scenic destination in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through rail access, trails, the Benson Footbridge, and Multnomah Falls Lodge. Despite damage from fire, rockfall, and erosion, it remains a defining Oregon landscape.

Oregon · United States