Oneonta Gorge
— — a green hallway in the basalt.
Not only on a wall.
“A narrow tributary slot in the Columbia River Gorge, walls of dark basalt rising a couple hundred feet on either side, mossed and dripping. For decades the way in meant climbing a logjam and wading the cold creek to reach Lower Oneonta Falls at the back. The 2017 Eagle Creek Fire rewrote the access; the gorge has been closed to entry for several stretches since, and the Oregon State Parks signs at the trailhead tell visitors what is open today. The view from the highway bridge still gives you the slot.
Oneonta Gorge, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Oneonta Gorge is a narrow slot canyon cut by Oneonta Creek through Columbia River Basalt on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, about 35 miles east of Portland. The walls rise roughly 200 feet, in places only twenty feet apart, and the gorge opens at its head into Lower Oneonta Falls. The Historic Columbia River Highway crosses the mouth on a small concrete bridge built in 1948. The surrounding watershed is administered by the US Forest Service and Oregon State Parks; portions have been designated a botanical area for the rare species growing on the wet walls.
Oneonta Creek runs cold and shallow most of the year, swelling in winter and spring with rain off the Cascade foothills. Lower Oneonta Falls at the head of the slot drops about 60 feet into a plunge pool. The walls hold one of the densest concentrations of bryophyte species in the Pacific Northwest — mosses, liverworts, and ferns that survive on the constant spray and shade. The Oregon State University Herbarium has documented this microhabitat for decades, and the gorge has long been managed as a sensitive botanical area to protect those communities.
The 2017 Eagle Creek Fire burned across the gorge and dropped large debris into Oneonta. Public access has been restricted or fully closed at various points since, with hazards including unstable slopes, falling rock, and a creek bed that shifts with each high-water year. The Historic Columbia River Highway and the small bridge at the mouth give the best legal vantage when the trail itself is closed. Multnomah Falls, the most visited site in the Gorge, sits about two miles west. Current closure status is posted by Oregon State Parks and the US Forest Service.