A Newly Discovered Waterfall In Oregon Proves We Should Never Stop Exploring

These days, it feels like there aren’t many places left in the world that we really haven’t discovered, especially in the United States, but Mike Malone, a helicopter pilot assisting firefighters battling a wildfire in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness noticed something interesting – a narrow canyon not marked on his map. It wasn’t on any map.

He decided to explore it himself. It took intense research, detailed planning, and several attempts to find, but less than a year ago, Malone finally made his way through the slot canyon, up several smaller icy falls, and found something incredible: a 100-foot-tall waterfall tumbling down the cliff face. As he was the first to formally document this natural wonder, he was given the honor of naming the canyon and falls. He dubbed it Valhalla, after the legendary home of the Norse god Odin.

Valhalla Canyon and the falls are pretty stunning, but it’s a dangerous trek to even find this place. Climbing through the narrow canyon and up the falls is a task that even expert explorers warn against. For this reason, we chose not to share the exact location, both for the safety of our readers as well as to preserve this pristine natural wonder as best we can. Instead, enjoy this stunning footage, as well as the full length documentary created by Oregon Public Broadcasting, which is available to view in-full on the OPB Website.

This first look at the newly discovered Valhalla canyon and waterfalls was shared on YouTube by the Oregon Public Broadcasting OPBWeb Channel. OPB first aired a full-length feature earlier this year, and you can find the whole show – as well as tons of other information – on the OPB Website.