Tenas Falls

Tenas Falls is accessed from the Eagle Creek Trail near the Bonneville Dam in the Columbia River Gorge. Depart Interstate 84 at Eagle Creek (signed, but only accessible to eastbound traffic, westbounders need to turn around at the Bonneville Dam exit), turn left and proceed to the trailhead. Tenas Falls is passed just over 4 1/2 miles from the trailhead and can be seen about 200 feet past Four Mile Bridge.Tenas Falls, it could be argued, is the least significant of the waterfalls that can be accessed along the Eagle Creek Trail. While there are one or two others along the trail that can be heard, they really can't be seen or reached. Tenas Falls can be easily seen from the main trail, just past the 4-1/2 mile bridge, where its unnamed creek steps down a small ledge in two segments before merging with Eagle Creek. The rocky beach facing the falls is a nice place to eat lunch, but if you hike this trail for the waterfalls (as you should), this is the one to skip if any are deemed necessary to skip to squeeze in as much as possible in a day.Neither Tenas Falls or its feeding stream are thought to have been named. The name was first used in the first edition of Greg Plumb's series (Waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest, since renamed to Waterfall Lovers Guide to the Pacific Northwest). The name, a Chinook Jargon word meaning "small", stems from a nearby backcountry campsite.