Upper Oneonta Falls

The third waterfall along Oneonta Creek (heading upstream) is perhaps the most obscure and most confounding of the quartette. The falls plunge 65 feet over a deeply undercut ledge where the creek is directed away from the Oneonta Creek Trail such that hikers simply can't see the falls at all - though those with good eyesight and a mind of where to look down in the canyon may notice the brink of the falls where the creek funnels into a short chute just before it's exploded outward in a powerful plunging jet that shoots out from the cliff nearly as far as it falls. Coupled with the scenic boulder-filled streambed just below the falls, this is one of the more photogenic waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge, but again due to its less-than-obvious location is seldom accessed (this is also due to the fact that accessing the falls isn't exactly easy and should only be attempted by the sure-footed).Like the two waterfalls downstream of this location, confusion has swirled around the proper naming conventions of the waterfalls of Oneonta Creek. Conventional history and wisdom (and information from the Greater Oneonta Historical Society in Oneonta, NY) says the falls at the head of Oneonta Gorge actually bear the proper name of Oneonta Falls. Several books have mistakenly given this title to the small middle falls adjacent to the bridge along the Horsetail Falls trail, just upstream from Oneonta Gorge itself, while the USGS has seemingly mistakenly mapped this waterfall as the real Oneonta Falls. Given the propensity for the USGS to make mapping errors in this kind of terrain, we're banking on the lowermost falls being the proper entry to bear the name Oneonta, so this fall should in turn be referred to as Upper Oneonta Falls.