Eagle Creek, Punch Bowl Falls

The Eagle Creek to Punch Bowl Falls hike is one of the shorter options for taking in the beauty of the Columbia River Gorge and perhaps is the most popular, taking in three of the 10 major waterfalls to be seen along the creek and its tributaries.
The Eagle Creek Trail is the quintessential hike in the Columbia River Gorge, boasting several spectacular waterfalls, tall basalt cliffs, and the lush temperate rain forests that so characterize the Pacific Northwest. The 2017 Eagle Creek Fire has scarred the landscape, however, although the trail, reopened in 2021 after much painstaking labor by the PCTA (Pacific Crest Trail Association), is fully intact. That lush forest canopy has completely burned off in places, and an understory of sun-loving shrubbery has grown up along much of the lower section of the trail. The blackened snags and scorched trunks of conifers stand out on the steep hillsides above the Eagle Creek gorge.