Horsetail Falls

Start at the Horsetail Falls day-use area. The day-use parking area is on the other side of the Historic Highway from the viewing area and picnic tables, so you have to cross the road to reach them. Accessible parking spaces are available. There is no restroom at this stop, so plan around that if you need facilities close by. Give yourself a few minutes to look at the water spilling from the dark rock into its pool; the falls are close enough that the roadside view is the main experience, not a long approach. Picnic tables on the falls side make this a comfortable place to pause rather than a quick photograph from the car.

Trail #438 climbs steeply from the day-use area toward Ponytail Falls, a separate waterfall also called Upper Horsetail Falls. It is about 0.4 mile up the trail, where the path passes behind the cascade through a naturally eroded basalt overhang. That gives you a very different view, but it takes a real uphill walk and steep cliffs occur in places. If you want to make a longer outing, a 2.5-mile loop links three waterfalls and Oneonta Gorge, gains about 660 feet, and returns along the Historic Highway. Treat the loop as a hike, not an extension of the quick roadside stop, and check the trail before setting out.

Look at how the creek spreads over the rounded lip before it narrows into the pool; the basalt wall gives the falls its distinctive profile. A stereograph of Horsetail Falls made by photographer Joseph Buchtel, probably in the 1860s, is part of the Gorge’s early photographic record, and the descriptive name has lasted on maps.

For a phone photo, include some of the basalt face and the pool rather than filling the frame with white water alone. The cliff shows the waterfall’s shape, while the pool gives it context. Tables near the falls make a picnic an easy addition; otherwise, this is a useful short stop between Multnomah Falls and the Gorge’s other highway-side sights.