White River Falls State Park Oregon

White River Falls State Park is between nowhere and nowhere and the closet town is Maupin, OR. This is a moderate, rough 3/4 of a mile trail that take people deep into the canyon to the historic hydroelectric power plant at the base of the falls, then on to Lower White River Falls. One of the first hydroelectric power plants in Oregon, it supplied electricity to Wasco and Sherman Counties from 1910-1963.

The park is a popular picnicking, hiking and fishing retreat for visitors to the Deschutes River corridor. Opening early each spring when the desert flowers are in bloom and closing after the leaves turn in the fall, this park offers all of the intrigue of history since time began. The chasm of the falls tells a geological story of violence and power; the old grist pond tells the story of people learning to use that power. The hydroelectric plant at the bottom tells the story of human ingenuity and persistence as we turned the Pacific Northwest's abundant natural energy into electricity.

The marker from when the hydroelectric plant was built.

At the bottom of the canyon, you get a great view of White River Falls also known as Tygh Valley Falls.

At the bottom of the trail is also the abandoned hydroelectric plant. They were having issues with graffiti, so the windows now have metal bars on them to keep people out of the building.

This hike had a couple of drawbacks. One of them was with the amount of people here with this place being in the middle of nowhere. The funny thing is, I'm in the middle of nowhere and I saw a woman I used to work with in Portland. We did have a nice chat. There were more dogs on the trail than people because at the time I went I had four dog walkers coming down the trail with four dogs each, at least every one of them was on a leash.

The inside of the abandoned plant is awesome!!

There are also steps here and I hate hiking steps because of the havoc they play on my knees. There were no rhyme or reason as to the length or width of the steps because I think each one was different in shape and size.

Some of the old turbine fins.

Overall, I really enjoyed this hike and if your ever in the Tygh Valley of Oregon you should check it out. A note here. There is a sign along the path that says no Cell Service after this point. This is true so be careful out here because there is no cell service. This means stay out of the water because of the water current and people do drown here because they don't pay attention to the warning signs.