Ellen G. White: The Lonely Years: 1876-1891 (vol. 3)

Visit to Multnomah Falls

The highlight of the trip by train to Portland was a stop at Multnomah Falls. Ellen White described this in her diary. 3BIO 252.6

On our way from Walla Walla Tuesday morning the cars stopped, as they generally do, twenty minutes at Multnomah Falls. Nearly all left the cars to climb the high ascent to obtain a clear view of this wondrously beautiful, grand sight. Sister Ings and Willie accompanied me. Elder Waggoner, Raymond, Elder Jones and wife were all climbing the steep ascent. There were steps built in the embankment, then a narrow zigzag path, then more wooden steps. This was repeated many times until we reached and passed on to a rustic bridge which spanned a chasm above the first fall. The grand fall is above this and called the Bridal Veil. The point from which the water flows is about nine hundred feet high. As the water descends it breaks upon the jutting rocks, scattering off in widespread, beautiful sprays. It is a lovely sight. 3BIO 252.7

I would have been pleased could I have spent an entire day in this place surrounded with lovely scenery.... We looked above, then beneath, and were led to exclaim, “How wonderful are all Thy works, Lord God Almighty!” Surely this is the work of the great Master Artist. We feel our littleness, our nothingness, in the presence of such manifestations of the great God. I called to mind the words of the psalmist when he calls upon everything that hath breath to praise the Lord.—Manuscript 9, 1884. 3BIO 253.1