Hello everybody, my name is Virtual Ranger Nick
and I work for the US forest service in the Columbia River Gorge
National Scenic Area. Today we're at Cape Horn and right now we're gonna go
exploring the lower section of the loop trail. Typically this
trail is closed from February 1st to July 15th. Reason
being, for the peregrine falcons and their
nesting. It is currently July 21st so this
section of the trail is open back up, so let's go see what we can find. So on
this lower portion of the Cape Horn trail, which is this spectacular area,
we're walking on this ledge. With below us we have the cliffs going straight
down to Columbia, up above we have this very steep
hillside up to these big basalt cliffs. So right now we're just working our way
through these cliff bands and I'm pretty sure shortly we're going
to get some spectacular views of the Columbia River.
You'll see a big bundle of sticks, that's a nest happens to be an osprey nest.
If you do see stuff like this as you're traveling through these trails,
try to be respectful to these birds and try to be quiet and not
disrupt them as they're traveling by.
So here we have one fabulous feature along this lower
loop trail at Cape Horn this is Salmon Creek Falls.
You can see it cascading down this Columbia River columnar basalt,
then just below us it flows into the Columbia River.
So as you're hiking along these trails throughout the Columbia River Gorge,
you'll notice a lot of these big talus fields.
This one you'll notice has all this big thick moss on it
and this tells us this feels fairly stable.
Other talus fields like this that you see that has nothing on it, you just see
rocks, that usually means it's a fairly unstable area.
But these talus slopes, these are home to the pika that live here in the Columbia
River Gorge. Which is a pretty unique thing for the
area
So here we are perched right above the Columbia River on the very impressive
cliffs of Cape Horn. These cliffs are the reason
that this trail is closed seasonally due to the Peregrine Falcon's nesting.
Much like Beacon Rock, that you can see in the
distance, that also has closures seasonally
due to Peregrine Falcons. These cliffs make perfect nesting sites for these Peregrine
Falcons. They love being perched up high where
they have a big field vision so they can see their prey and they can also stay
away from predators.
Another reason why Peregrines prefer to nest on cliffs
is the way they hunt. If they're nesting on cliffs, they're already perched up
pretty high so when they do spot their prey they do
not have to fly very far to get in a position to dive on them.
When the Peregrines dive, they can reach speeds in excess of 200
miles per hour, that makes them one of the fastest
animals on the planet. Peregrine facts, number one, much like a
jet turbine engine Peregrines have cones up in their nose
that allow them to breathe when they're moving at very very high speeds.
Number two, Peregrines have very large keels in their body so they can support
very large muscles. Those muscles let them flap
with a lot of pressure and intensity, they can flap up to four
times per second. Number three, Peregrine's wings have very pointy stiff
feathers and their wing tips are very pointed
so when they dive they can be extremely aerodynamic.