Pringle Falls is a series of rapids or drops on the upper

Deschutes River The Deschutes River ( ) in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many of the tributaries that descend from the drier, easte ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. From just downstream of Wyeth Campground, the rapids begin with about of

whitewater Whitewater forms in the context of rapids, in particular, when a river's Stream gradient, gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that foam, froths, making t ...

rated class II (novice) on the International Scale of River Difficulty. The next is class III (intermediate] ending in a class IV (advanced) drop. ''Soggy Sneakers: A Paddler's Guide to Oregon's Rivers'' says, "Only expert kayakers should consider this drop, and only after scouting. It is definitely not a rapids for open canoes." The Northwest Waterfall Survey describes the rapids as "the first major waterfall along the Deschutes River" but qualifies this by adding that the waterfall has been reported to be a cascade series with a total vertical drop of spread over a horizontal distance of . The survey notes that the falls cannot be seen from nearby roadways or other public property. Most boaters portage around the falls, taking out of the river at Wyeth Campground and putting back in below the falls at Pringle Falls Campground. Shorter portages are not feasible because the land on both sides of the rapids is private. The two campgrounds, one upstream and one downstream of the private land, are within the

Deschutes National Forest The Deschutes National Forest is a United States national forest (NF) located in Central Oregon, in parts of Deschutes, Klamath, Lake, and Jefferson counties. It was established in 1908, with border changes following in 1911 and 1915. The f ...

Name

The falls were named for O. M. Pringle, who bought of government land here in 1902 under provisions of the

Timber and Stone Act The Timber and Stone Act of 1878 in the United States sold timberland in surveyed public lands of the United States within the states of California, Oregon, and Nevada, and in the Washington Territory. The legislation specifically noted that milita ...

. The falls were also known as the ''Fish Trap'', a reference to its use by

Native Americans Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

, who caught fish by the

gill A gill () is a respiration organ, respiratory organ that many aquatic ecosystem, aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow r ...

s as they swam upriver through shallow channels. A post office named ''Pringlefalls'' operated from 1916 to 1918.

References

{{Authority control Waterfalls of Deschutes County, Oregon Deschutes National Forest Waterfalls of Oregon