Tish Creek Falls

Tish Creek Falls is one of the tallest waterfalls in the waterfall-studded Eagle Creek basin of the Columbia River Gorge, but is infrequently visited due to its off-trail location and lack of developed access. The falls plunge a nearly sheer 196 feet over a high cathedral-like cliff into a narrow canyon with walls rising 300 feet or more in places above the creek on either side. Several large trees flank the falls just downstream, which make it necessary to get quite close to the falls in order to obtain a clear view (so close that part of the top of the falls is cut off from view, in fact). Our survey of the falls produced a measurement of 166 feet in height but this was a truncated measurement due to the necessity of getting close to the falls for a clear view. LiDAR models show the total height to be approximately 30 feet taller, and this missing 30 feet of the falls can indeed be seen through the trees on the final approach to its base. Tish Creek drains from a small basin on the east side of the Eagle Creek valley and from a small part of the Benson Plateau, totaling about 0.7 square miles in size upstream of the falls. The area receives considerable amounts of rain from November to June, and often several feel of snow on top of Benson Plateau, so there is almost always ample flow in the creek, but not to the point of being unaffected by the seasons. By July the volume of water present in the falls will be reduced considerably, and by late August it may be just a trickle - though likely not ever running completely dry.