Day 6: Hike to Sacred falls, kayaking and climbing Crouching Lion
We heard about a hike to a waterfall that wasn't far from us...the only catch was that it is in a state park that is closed (a few years ago there was a rock slide and some people were killed, so they closed the park). We decided we would see if we could find it! We wanted to hike to a waterfall and didn't want to do it with 300 other people!
We parked down the road from the closed park entrance at this beach...funny sign.
Took a little hike through the forest and eventually found the trail! The "Area Closed" signs were great trail markers the entire way!
It was quite the jungle!! I wouldn't have been surprised to see Tarzan swinging from the vines!
Seriously, a jungle!!
Gigantic leaves!
This tree was growing on top of a gigantic rock! The roots went all the way around the rock into the ground. So cool!
All along the trail we found little piles of rocks wrapped in leaves...we think it was some sort of memorial to those who died.
Found the sacred falls! It was amazing!
We hiked out without getting caught by the rangers and thrown in jail (whew!), then off to find a kayak!
Found one! And we found a river to follow into the jungle. We went a couple of miles before it got to narrow and overrun by trees then we had to turn back.
It was fun to explore the river, but not very exciting.
While kayaking we had seen some people climbing a mountain so of course that's the next place Dale wanted to go! He convinced me it would be super fun (we had already had our share of hiking for the day) and we went! He was right! It was super fun and I'm so glad we did it!
We didn't know where to start, but we found some cars parked by the side of the road and a little trail through the jungle...so we followed it!
It was a steep ascent and before long we had great views!
We weren't really prepared for hiking...we still had our kayaking clothes on, but at least I had tennis shoes this time!
We followed the ridge line and every time I thought we had reached the peak where we would stop, there would be another peak! The trail was steep and rocky in places and very narrow. Again, the wind was trying to blow us off the top!
This gives you a good idea of what the trail was like...if you look closely you can see me-just a little speck-in blue.
Finally reached the top!
Later we found out it was a hike called Crouching Lion that not many people go on because it's so dangerous! It was awesome!
The next day we got some really great pictures of the mountain!
YES! It really does look like that! No photo shop here!
Everywhere we went it was beautiful!
