Up a creek, no paddle needed

I was given permission to abandon the family for one night in the gorge. I had already figured out where my next trip would be after seeing a waterfall picture on kywilderness.com. I had never been hiking in this particular area before. This is a pretty well known area, but I see no reason to publicize the actual location more, so I won't mention the specific creek other than to say it is a well traveled unofficial trail.

I got to the trailhead around 11 and headed up the trail. The weather was about 45 degrees and cloudy. The multiple creek crossings were cold, my guess is the water temperature was mid to upper 30s. There were a lot of crossings.

It was not long (about an hour) until I started hearing noise and then came around the corner to a very large waterfall.

I had brought my Nikon 5100 because it was such a short hike. I am glad I did, I had lots of fun remembering the basics of photography and was able to play with exposure times and shutter speeds. I took lots of pictures. There was an added benefit that the sun finally broke through the clouds.

I then spent some time exploring the area. It was pretty easy to get up to the top and see the small creek that was making so much noise, kind of startling because it really was not that much water in the creek bed, but it made a very impressive waterfall.

In the exploring, I found some interesting sandstone formations. Again, a lot of pictures were taken.

After that, I decided to hike back down the creek to see if I could find a couple arches in the area. The GPS on my phone was acting squirrelly and when I found a nice campsite, I decided to just relax. I gathered wood for a fire and enjoyed an Two Hearted Ale, got a fire going, cooked dinner, read my book, and enjoyed a Ten Fidy and some bourbon with the fire.

Obligatory campsite pic, note the "chair" that someone built. I have never understood this behavior, but I will use them when I find them.

The next morning I decided to save the arches for another day since there was another waterfall in the area I wanted to see. I hiked back down the trail to the car. Along the way, I saw an otter in the creek.

I got to the car with no problems and talked to a gentleman who had been out for a couple days and was waiting for his ride. Then, I started up another unofficial trail to the next waterfall. My understanding is that this is usually dry and it takes a lot of rain to make a waterfall.

Again, lots of pictures were taken.

I was hoping to climb to the top of the waterfall where I have heard the view is awesome, but I had promised to be home at a reasonable time. I headed back down the trail and to the car and an easy drive home. All in all, a great 27 hours in the gorge.