Visitors to Oregon’s tallest waterfall will once again need a permit this summer.
Timed entry permits are back for the 2023 season at Multnomah Falls, required daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., between May 26 and Sept. 4., the U.S. Forest Service announced Friday.
Those permits are issued per vehicle, not per person, and are good for a one-hour time slot, the agency said. Visitors are allowed to show up any time within their time slot, and can stay as long as they like. Those visiting before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. don’t need to secure permits.
Permits are technically free but cost $2 to purchase online at recreation.gov, where they’re available for up to weeks in advance. A limited number of same-day permits will also be made available, free of charge, at the Gateway to the Gorge Visitor Center in Troutdale and the Cascade Locks Historical Museum.
People who visit the waterfall via the Columbia Area Transit bus do not need permits. The bus departs from the Gateway Transit Center in Portland, with stops at Troutdale, Multnomah Falls, Cascade Locks and Hood River.
While the permitting system at Multnomah Falls is back this year, permits will no longer be required to drive the Historic Columbia River Highway. That pilot program, introduced in 2022, was quickly discontinued. ODOT officials said while they considered it a success, it proved too costly and complicated to continue.
Efforts to curb congestion on the historic highway will now be focused on the section that passes Multnomah Falls, which ODOT said is home to the busiest crosswalk in Oregon. This summer, the agency will staff flaggers at the chokepoint, ensuring that pedestrians cross safely and traffic continues to move swiftly. Barricades will also be used when the smaller Multnomah Falls parking lot on the scenic highway fills up.
The timed entry permits for Multnomah Falls were first introduced in 2020, as the attraction reopened to the public amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While initially advertised as a pandemic precaution, the idea for timed permits had been in consideration for years, forest officials said at the time, as crowds continued to swell in the Columbia Gorge.
Before the permits many as 2,000 people showed up on busy summer days, a number that forest officials said had become unsustainable for the attraction.
— Jamie Hale
503-294-4077; jhale@oregonian.com; @HaleJamesB
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