Multnomah Falls Lodge Expected To Re-Open Before End Of The Year

By Ericka Cruz Guevarra (OPB)
Portland, Oregon Nov. 17, 2017 9:12 p.m.
The Multnomah Falls Lodge closed in September 2017 due to the Eagle Creek Fire.

The Multnomah Falls Lodge closed in September 2017 due to the Eagle Creek Fire.

Ericka Cruz Guevarra / OPB

Multnomah Falls Lodge is expected to re-open before the end of the year after the Eagle Creek Fire prompted its closure in early September.

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Visitors still won't have access to the base or the top of the falls while personnel continue cleanup and rock-scaling efforts to deal with damage caused by the fire that burned nearly 49,000 acres in the Columbia River Gorge.

"The lodge is one of the most visited natural areas in Oregon — if not even sort of in the West Coast here — and we wanted to get people back in there as soon as its safe to do so," said Rachel Pawlitz, a spokesperson with the U.S. Forest Service.

Related: Fire Crews Fight To Preserve Multnomah Falls: 'It's Still Green.'

Pawlitz said visitors also won't be able to access the Columbia River Highway yet. She said visitors can expect fences behind the lodge to protect it from falling debris. Barriers will also be installed to mark of areas that aren't safe for visitors.

Crews, meanwhile, are clearing out loosened rock on the two cliff faces of the waterfall.

"Our first goal and priority is to really get the immediate vicinity where the lodge itself and the front plaza is open," Pawlitz said. "We are feeling pretty good about, by the end of the year, people should be able to get back into the lodge."

Pawlitz said visitors will be able to glimpse the base of the waterfall from the side of the lodge.

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