The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

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Sore Feet
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The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by Sore Feet » January 20th, 2010, 10:18 pm

So a while back there was some fairly drawn out discussion about the possible remnants of a trail climbing up the face adjacent to Upper Latourell Falls and speculation about where said trail might have gone. Well check this out:

Image

Yes, that is Upper Latourell Falls with a bridge crossing right over it EXACTLY where the old trail was found to end, and corresponding with the mystery ledges I noticed on the opposite side of the creek last time I was up there. Its probably a good thing that bridge doesn't exist any more but on the other hand, how cool would it be to get that close to the falls and be able to peer straight down 3/4 of the drop?

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chameleon
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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by chameleon » January 20th, 2010, 10:21 pm

Good find!! I always suspected there was something up there. Where did the trail go after this bridge...did it continue on up the stream?

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Sore Feet
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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by Sore Feet » January 20th, 2010, 11:32 pm

No idea. This just confirms that there was indeed a loop on either side of the canyon that didn't involve the current bridge below the falls (or in addition to the current bridge below the falls maybe).

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AlexanderSupertramp
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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by AlexanderSupertramp » January 20th, 2010, 11:45 pm

Holy crap Bryan. Where did you find this photo? It makes one wonder, if this sort of thing was so long forgotten, what else used to be out there?

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Stevefromdodge
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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by Stevefromdodge » January 21st, 2010, 10:54 am

Great find! Where did this pic come from?

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ErinL
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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by ErinL » January 21st, 2010, 11:17 am

Very cool. I wonder when the photo was taken. Thanks for sharing.

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Don Nelsen
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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by Don Nelsen » January 21st, 2010, 2:54 pm

Hey Bryan,

Nice job digging up that photo and info. I've got to get in there to check those trail remnants out.

Don
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Guy
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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by Guy » January 21st, 2010, 5:33 pm

Very cool find.

It's amazing to me that we know what happened in so many places thousands of years ago but so much history has been lost, forgotten or more likely never recorded in the last 150 years in the Gorge.
hiking log & photos.
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Sore Feet
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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by Sore Feet » January 21st, 2010, 6:28 pm

Found the picture in the OSU Library's Digital Archives. Most of the big universities have these sort of collections online. UW, WSU, U of O and OSU all have good collections of water-related subjects. OSU in particular has a set of photographs from a series of stream surveys conducted circa 1910-1930ish which I found particularly useful in mapping some previously unknown waterfalls.

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Re: The Upper Latourell Falls mystery has been solved!

Post by sarbar » January 22nd, 2010, 9:11 am

What a neat photo find!
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