The Rock Slides at Triangle Lake

Trafton B.

August 7, 2010 - 6:47 PM

Back in Eugene for two days and my friends and I are already adventuring into the Oregon wilderness. At just under 300 acres, Triangle Lake is just about the same size at the University of Oregon campus; I'll let you guess what shape it's in. The lake is mainly frequented for water sports and summer camps, but there's another attraction that often draws the college community for weekend afternoons in the summertime. The rockslides.

After cooking breakfast on Saturday morning, my roommate, Winston, and I picked up our friends, Jordan and Emma, and made the 40-mile drive to Triangle Lake located just west of Blachly on Route 36. It was around 1 o'clock when we finally arrived and we quickly found that we weren't the only ones with the rockslides on our minds. Don't worry, that didn't stop us in the slightest.

The first thing that greets you when you descend the staircase to this natural water park is a giant wading pool at the base of a small yet charming waterfall. Across the water you see a towering cliff with ropes dangling from trees at the top and small platforms around twenty-five and thirty-five feet above the water. Thankfully the water below is plenty deep because a popular tradition at the rockslides is to scale the wall and cannonball into the eddy.

Winston and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I thought the jump would be the scariest part - rest assured it definitely had my heart pumping - but the climb itself was no walk in the park. We only made it to the first platform, partly because we didn't have the bravado to climb any higher, and then took turns leaping as far outward as humanly possible.

Let me tell you, the fall was well worth the climb. Regardless of how fearless you think you are, you're never fully prepared to jump once you reach the top. And it always seems farther when you're looking down. You count down in your head and finally just take one big gulp and leap. As you fall, all sound is completely locked out. It's just you looking downward as the water comes speeding towards you, and then SPLASH! You sink for a second and then race to the surface where you're greeted with cheers from the onlookers on the bank.

As soon as I came up, I swam over to my group near the waterfall with a big smile across my face. I looked at Winston and said, "Wanna do it again?" His reply, "Yeah! From the upper platform this time?" I nodded in agreement.

Below the main watering hole there's a large waterslide (pictured above). It's a gentle one hundred foot long slant that slides right and left before dumping you into a warm wading pool at the bottom. Fair warning, if you decide to body slide down, there is a hazard of ending up with some minor road rash or the more commonly seeing swim truck wedgie. We preferred to slide down on inner tubes.

It was certainly an afternoon well spent at Triangle Lake. We learned a valuable lesson for next time as well. Don't forget to bring food! By the time we left the slides we were absolutely starving. The corn dogs and chips that we picked up at the market on the way back into Eugene never tasted so good.