Snoquera Falls and Dalles Falls

We decided that we needed a change.....we've been hiking at the pass almost every hike since last year and we wanted to branch out.  We headed to the Southern Cascades as we wanted to see some falls.  We found Snoquera Falls on the WTA and found the Dalles Falls as a happy accident.  The path to Snoquera is very easy to find.  The Boy Scout camp is easy to find...we thought we had been on the road too long, but you will find them with road signs.  Missing it would be impossible. Snoquera falls isn't running hard at all--it is mostly just lines of water and mist, but it is still a nice, easy climb.  4 miles round trip and not as much elevation as the site says.  We hike all the way up--right to the falls themselves.  If you do that, poles may be warranted.  I slipped and slid all around--Terah being half mountain goat had no problem.  So here are a few pics from Snoquera:

Now heading back, just after only 4 miles we thought we wanted to do something more.  We saw a turnout just before the boyscout camp but after the Dalles campground.  We found the Snoquera Palisades trail head.  Just .2 miles up there are loads of trails to chose from--including the trail we just went to...so if you just want to stop here and look around you do not need to go the 1 mile to the boy scout camp.    We decided on the 2 miles to the upper Dalles Falls.  (not to scare you, but this one has elevation and loads of switchbacks!) This is also a mountain bike trail and that is all we ran into--about 4 groups of guys on bikes heading down.  All we can is THEY ARE CRAZY!  There were some spots that were scary just to walk across not to mention a staircase.  About 1.87 miles up we found an outlook that reminded us of Rattlesnake Ledge with out all the people. Had lunch there above the white river in the sunshine.  Great day logged in just under 8 miles.  We will return to this area. We had fun discovering the new area and that lots of the trails interconnect.

 

Now you may not know this about us as we haven't mentioned it much but Terah and I are "gourmet eating' hikers.  So today on the menu was:  cracked pepper turkey sandwiches with cheddar cheese and dijon mustard on multi grain bread.  On the side was honey wheat pretzels and juicy oranges.  We washed it down with homemade iced Irish whiskey and vanilla latte.  Oh so good that it made the climb and view better!