Columnar Falls

Situated along the next major drainage west from Margaret Falls, an unnamed stream slides and veils down the side of Cowlitz Canyon in a waterfall both significant in height and geology. The falls drop in three distinct steps, the upper two tiers sliding about 120 feet and 200 feet respectively in long, gradual cascades. The third tier then drops nearly vertically for over 300 feet, falling down a cliff composed of one of the best outcrops of columnar jointing in Washington State. Though the unnamed stream feeding this waterfall will flow fairly consistently for most of the year thanks to the high elevation it drains from, the small basin which sustains the flow of the creek is limited to the point where the volume of water flowing over the falls will diminish significantly by the autumn months. This may make viewing the falls at a distance more difficult as its visibility is reduced with its volume.Though this waterfall was photographed by members of a Mountaineers expedition in 1907, it does not appear to have been named at any point. One early photograph incorrectly captions the falls as nearby Margaret Falls, but whether this was the intended target for that name or whether the members of the expedition simply did not properly identify the real Margaret Falls is not known. We have proposed the name Columnar Falls after the exceptional columnar jointing which frames the lower tier of the falls.