Oneonta Gorge Trail

Photo couresy of: Pinterest)

The Oneonta Trail was one I saw almost immediately when I was looking for things to do in this area and I knew that I just had to do it. The hike is almost entirely in water as you walk upstream to the falls. I say almost entirely because we are coming to the end of the dry season here which has caused the water level to be lower than if we hiked it at the beginning of the summer. The water was cold,but certainly not the coldest we have been in. I think Three Pools still has that spot reserved.

I was disappointed though by how short the trail was. It was only about 1/4 of mile which is nothing around these parts. We went last Saturday, so there were a lot of people around which also made the experience a bit less enjoyable.

We didn't bring our camera as we had read that some parts of the river can be neck deep. We didn't want to chance ruining our camera which is why I am borrowing pictures from others on the internet. There are many pictures out there, but I tried to show the ones that were most representative of what the river looked like when we hiked it.

I almost had a panic attack as the older I get the more afraid of heights I become and the only way into the main portion of the trail was to hike over a huge log jam. The height, the people surrounding us, and the fact that I was climbing on old rotted out logs made me a bit apprehensive that mother nature was not going to be very forgiving should I fall at any moment. Alas, I made it through okay minus one stop on the way back in which I had to take a few moments to gather myself before having a panic attack as I climbed back down the log jam to get to the car. (Thank goodness I have a patient husband.)

I would definitely do this trail again, but I wouldn't come out here just to do this trail as we did last weekend. I would add on a hike to another of the waterfall trails that are within minutes of this one. Overall, the 75 minutes it took to get out to this spot was just not worth it for what I got out of it. I think this is the first time I have been disappointed by mother nature out here. Hopefully, it will be the last.

Photo courtesy of:pdxhiker.wordpress.com

Photo courtesy of: roadtrippers.com