Bridal Veil Creek Re-visited

[chameleon]

On Monday, I got a late start and decided on a short, but watery adventure, given the hot weather. Bridal Veil was once again beckoning. I made a complete "canyoneering" trip of it, going straight down the stream, waterfalls and all. It turned out to be pretty gentle. The deep pools on parts of the stream were delicious to wade through.

The trickiest part of the little trip was descending the last falls (middle bridal veil - I didn't rappel "Bridal Veil" for obvious reasons...always a crowd at the bottom, etc...), and not for the reasons you might expect. Hornets had built a nest right into the cleft wall right where I was about to step!! There were literally dozens of buzzing hornets as my rope hit the ground there. Talk about an un-expected hazard! I immediately froze as they angrily buzzed around me, hoping to demonstrate that I didn't mean to threaten them in any way. Luckily after a few minutes, their speed decreased and they settled down. I slowly made my way around them.

I'll post more pics later, but here are some to get started. Tom, I know you wanted to see the neat little slide by the stolen cars...so here you go. It really is tragic the state that this canyon is in, but so much potential...I really hope we can get a trail in here, the road above shut down, and most of the trash removed. What a lasting achievement that would be!

[Splintercat]

Great photos, Zach -- as always! Thanks for including a very nice portrait of the slide above the upper falls. That one has always intrigued me -- it looks like sort of a Dutchman type falls from up on the cliffs, but you never know about the verticality until you're in front of it. It's surprisingly blocky, and IMO, is a "falls", at least informally (even if it doesn't meet Bryan's height threshold).

Would you be okay with me using a few of your pics in a map/photo montage, along the lines of Tanner Creek? It would also be nice if you could come up with working names for the new waterfalls that you've documented beyond the basic three (Bridal Veil, Middle Bridal Veil and Upper Bridal Veil). Even the big three are incredibly boring, but we can work on that someday, too. For now, those drab names are in the vernacular already (unfortunately).

These photos also show, again, that mile-for-mile, Bridal Veil Creek canyon is near the top of the heap in waterfalls among Gorge streams -- or Oregon streams, for that matter.

Nice! Thanks, Zach.

Tom

[chameleon]

Tom,
Absolutely you can use the pictures for a map/montage or whatever. It is a terrific canyon. That's interesting that you'd consider that slide near the cars a "falls." It seems that perhaps people may have 'back in the day' too. Bryan mentions on his site that what we're calling "Upper Bridal Veil Falls," was referred to in some old pictures as lower bridal veil falls, indicating a falls above it. Could they perhaps have been conisdering this cool little feature upper bridal veil? Hmmm...
-Zach

[Splintercat]

Thanks, Zach. That could be with the falls, although there's always just typos, too. Kind of like that "Strawnahan Falls" postcard that I've posted here a few times.

I'll put something together when I get a minute, and post it on this thread -- I'll definitely need your proofing!

Tom