Multnomah Falls Visitors Pay $2 to Reserve Spot Behind Other Visitors' Heads

BRIDAL VEIL, Ore. — Visitors to Multnomah Falls are now required to pay $2 and reserve a timed slot to view the waterfall, a system that guarantees each permit holder a designated position behind the heads of other permit holders.

The Oregon Department of Transportation permit, required 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Sept. 7, admits one vehicle from Interstate 84 per reservation. More than 1.3 million people visit the falls each year, most of them at the same time.

“We got the 11:40,” said a Boise woman photographing the back of a man, also from Boise. “You have to book these things. People don’t realize.”

Darlene Cutler, who has lived below Cape Horn for four decades, noted the falls previously operated without appointments for roughly 15,000 years. “Walk-ins only, that whole time,” she said.

The water, reached for comment, kept falling.