Ticketed access to HCRH waterfall corridor

Use this forum to post links to news stories from other websites - ones that other hikers might find interesting. This is not intended for original material or anecdotal information. You can reply to any news stories posted, but do not start a new thread without a link to a specific news story.
User avatar
wildcat
Posts: 109
Joined: September 14th, 2021, 4:48 pm
Location: CN85RP

Re: Ticketed access to HCRH waterfall corridor

Post by wildcat » April 15th, 2022, 8:08 pm

Generally, how is traffic nowadays on the old highway between exit 28 and Multnomah Falls, on Saturdays in July through about mid-late September, anyways? Bad enough to make it unusable on a bike?

Last I was through there was in 2017, with my grandmum, maybe about a month or so before the fire. Usually when I'd go that way it was in the middle of the week when everybody's at work so it wasn't terrible. But that was years ago.
Life in Chacos
nwhikers.net: thewildcat

squidvicious
Posts: 525
Joined: May 11th, 2015, 8:41 pm
Location: Troutdale

Re: Ticketed access to HCRH waterfall corridor

Post by squidvicious » April 15th, 2022, 8:12 pm

Traffic will be whatever the amount of permits they decide to release allows it to be, which we don't know.

User avatar
adamschneider
Posts: 3711
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

Re: Ticketed access to HCRH waterfall corridor

Post by adamschneider » April 15th, 2022, 10:30 pm

I'm curious what the traffic will be like from 8:45 to 8:59 in the morning.

User avatar
Charley
Posts: 1834
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: Milwaukie

Re: Ticketed access to HCRH waterfall corridor

Post by Charley » April 16th, 2022, 10:06 am

squidvicious wrote:
April 15th, 2022, 7:33 pm
There's some additional/updated info up now at https://www.waterfallcorridorpermits.org
... interesting that they've moved the western border from Vista house to bridal veil
Yes! I'm glad to hear this because I'll still be able to do my evening Angel's Rest training hikes. From the new maps, it seems clear that the trailhead will be outside the exclusion zone. Starting at 6pm wouldn't have been so bad, but the daytime exclusion would have shifted a lot of users later. . . making the trail more crowded.

adamschneider wrote:
April 15th, 2022, 10:30 pm
I'm curious what the traffic will be like from 8:45 to 8:59 in the morning.
Traffic will be lit. :lol:

In all seriousness, the text of the website (below) seems to indicate that there won't be any permit checking inside the exclusion zone or upon leaving the exclusion zone. So it seems like you could get in early, park, and be unmolested the entire time. As I read it, you could visit all the waterfalls, park at the trailheads, and not worry about being booted out or ticketed.
How will permits be checked? ​​
Between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department staff will be at the two check-in points just east of the Bridal Veil off-ramp (Exit 28) and Ainsworth State Park (Exit 35). Once you check-in, you do not need to display your permit. Come during your permit time, stay as long as you would like. Permits will not be checked when leaving the corridor.
Believe it or not, I barely ever ride a mountain bike.

squidvicious
Posts: 525
Joined: May 11th, 2015, 8:41 pm
Location: Troutdale

Re: Ticketed access to HCRH waterfall corridor

Post by squidvicious » April 16th, 2022, 11:06 am

Charley wrote:
April 16th, 2022, 10:06 am
As I read it, you could visit all the waterfalls, park at the trailheads, and not worry about being booted out or ticketed.
Yes, that's correct. Once you're in, you're in. But there's no guarantee of parking availability, so if people are getting there early and parking up to hike all day, the permit people may still be SOL, and you may still have traffic issues with people just driving back and forth hoping to chance on a spot, or the lovely people who basically just stop in the middle of the road and wait, or the people who stop in the middle of the road and get into fights over spaces...

Continuing to gate the lower parking lot at Wahkeena until 8 makes this worse. I don't understand why that's closed ever, at any time of year. But it means hikers arriving early and planning to be there for a long time will be taking up the spaces on the road. Always been an issue, but worse if you're driving more people to arrive early.

Plus they don't seem to have done the most obvious and, with checkpoints in place, easy thing to do, which would be to not allow RVs on the HCRH west of Ainsworth. They don't fit the roads, they require both lanes on the narrow bridges (so if traffic's backed up it's blocked in both directions), and maybe more importantly there is nowhere to park them, without going crosswise across every available space, blocking people in, or blocking traffic.

The hop on, hop off shuttle service was a step in the right direction, but splitting it between different providers doesn't help. Looks like the trolley has hourly pickups, and Sasquatch every hour and a half. Hardly hop on hop off--hop off, miss one shuttle, stand around for an hour and half waiting for the next... Useless for hikers, and not that appealing for the tourists, either. Especially families hauling around tired, cranky kids. One provider with more frequent service would have made sense and been a lot more useful. They aren't cheap, either.

It's kind of surprising that there's no bike / e-bike rental in that area. Though I guess I personally wouldn't want to chance that unless the roads were completely closed to public traffic, so maybe not that surprising.

Connections in from Rooster Rock and Benson would certainly be nice.


ed: if you want to figure your chances of parking, try following this "math" from the waterfall trolley site: :lol:
Q: How bad is the parking situation?

A: Update Pending as of 3/7/22- For you statisticians out there, the Forest Service and the State are currently in the process of deciding how many cars per hour they will allow on the Highway. If the arrivals are spread evenly throughout the day (which they are not) that allows for XXX cars per day. If the average car carries 2 guests and they spend an average of two hours at Multnomah and leave (which does not necessarily happen as many would be on an all-day hike) there are 240 parking places for xxx cars or ??% of what is needed, split between 2 lots that are separated by an 8+ mile drive but only a 5-minute walk. In reality, because of the all-day users, you have a no greater than a 1 in 5 chance (or 20%) or less of securing a parking spot.

User avatar
wildcat
Posts: 109
Joined: September 14th, 2021, 4:48 pm
Location: CN85RP

Re: Ticketed access to HCRH waterfall corridor

Post by wildcat » April 16th, 2022, 5:39 pm

Apparently in 2018, to relieve traffic post-fire, ODOT had considered making one lane of the old highway "carefree" i.e. bike/ped only and the traffic lane one-way, but that fell through (excuse me, was "postponed").

https://bikeportland.org/2018/07/11/odo ... all-285615
https://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/Regions/Pag ... ening.aspx

historic-highway-reopening-map.jpg
ODOT/via bikeportland.org
Figure I.

HCRH-phasedreopening-lane-graphic_resized.jpg
ODOT/via bikeportland.org
Figure II.
Life in Chacos
nwhikers.net: thewildcat

User avatar
Charley
Posts: 1834
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: Milwaukie

Re: Ticketed access to HCRH waterfall corridor

Post by Charley » April 16th, 2022, 10:28 pm

squidvicious wrote:
April 16th, 2022, 11:06 am
Charley wrote:
April 16th, 2022, 10:06 am
As I read it, you could visit all the waterfalls, park at the trailheads, and not worry about being booted out or ticketed.
Yes, that's correct. Once you're in, you're in. But there's no guarantee of parking availability
...
ed: if you want to figure your chances of parking, try following this "math" from the waterfall trolley site: :lol:
Q: How bad is the parking situation?

...
In reality, because of the all-day users, you have a no greater than a 1 in 5 chance (or 20%) or less of securing a parking spot.
Is it really that bad? Maybe I'm out of the loop. I haven't hiked anything by Wahkeena or Angel's Rest in years. Maybe it's just because I'm just not going to the Gorge at the busiest time of day, on the busiest days, in the busiest season.
Believe it or not, I barely ever ride a mountain bike.

Post Reply