Requiem for a magnificent waterfall..?

[Splintercat]

On a recent visit to Upper Rock Creek Falls, in Stevenson, I was saddened to see that the private land on the north side of the falls had been cleared since my previous visit, and several structures are now visible from the falls. Here's a comparison from a couple of years ago:



Worse, when I checked the web upon returning, I found this:

Real Estate for Sale - Rock Creek Falls

So, for $250,000 I could buy this land? Boy, do I wish I had that in my checking account...

I checked with Friends of the Gorge, and the prospects for them intervening are not good: the property is inside the Stevenson urban area, and not tied to resource or recreation parcels outside the urban area (though the entire stream corridor is deserving of protection, all the way from Rock Creek Park to the edge of the city).

I sent off an opinion piece to the Skamania County newspaper, in hopes that this would be news to somebody in the lovely town of Stevenson, and they might find a way to intervene. Who knows, maybe people in Stevenson aren't aware of what they are about to lose?

I'll probably check in with City Hall in Stevenson, in hopes that this property has been cleared and put on the market as an attempt to force a sale with a public parks entity -- that's a common strategy by impatient landowners with prime park sites. Another possibility is that the highly unstable soils in the area (there is an infamous slide, just downstream) makes this property un-sellable. That would be nice.

But I'm also preparing myself for the very strong possibility that this magnificent waterfall will soon be the exclusive domain of a few wealthy homeowners. That seems so very wrong.

-Tom

[pyles_94]

sad!! this looks like a nice falls.. one i wouldnt have minded visiting some day.... whens the funeral!

[Sore Feet]

Well at least for the time being the Lower Falls are still accessible, of course thanks to that dastardly landslide, its being slowly buried. Thanks to the instability of that whole hillside, I don't see a whole lot of development of any kind happening in the area, but that also means prospects for public trails are probably pretty grim too.

[Webfoot]

Is it presently possible to legally visit this falls?