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Courtesy of the University of North Florida
and Jack Woodward
The weather forecast for Wednesday was cloudy in the morning and partly cloudy in the afternoon. We decided to go for it and make the trip down to the waterfalls at the bottom of the canyon. We had read in the brochures that there were around 400 stair steps to deal with, so we decided to give ourselves a lot of time to make the trip. We made up some sandwiches, packed some drinks and off we went.
This is outside the cabin while I was waiting for Dot to finish getting ready.
On the way over to the waterfalls area, we saw that the trees were getting some color to them.
This is near the top of the trail going down to the falls. It was a little foggy (cloudy), but the air temperature was comfortable.
The rocky cliffs were pretty impressive.
As you can see, this boulder is gargantuan. To take these pictures of the two of us, I mounted the camera on the tripod and set it for time delay and jogged down to be with Dot.
The obligatory 'holding up the boulder' pictures. Of course itty-bitty Dot had to stand on the bench just to reach the boulder.
There were some nice woodsy scenes on the way down the hillside.
Our first look at the upper waterfall. Between the two falls, this upper one is the most scenic.
Dot is almost 'lost' among all the rocks.
Looking downstream.
This one is for Pete. Dot said to be sure to show Pete that she was wearing high-top boots. It took quite a bit of cajoling and browbeating to convince her that plain walking shoes weren't going to be enough on the trails we were going to be on. Now that she's been there, she thoroughly agrees. The high-tops added a lot of ankle support. If it wasn't rocks we were walking on it was tree roots.
Beautiful.
As you can see, in places the trail hugged the cliff face.
Looking up at the cliff.
Heading down to the lower falls. This part of the hike had the most steps.
Looking at the opposite canyon wall through an opening in the trees.
You can see a cloud moving up the hillside. On the way back up, the cloud was so thick it was impossible to see the opposite wall.
Down, down, down.
Zoomed in on the opposite canyon wall with the telephoto.
Still going down.
Near the bottom.
The lower falls. Unfortunately this was as close as we could get to these falls. We were standing on a wooden deck about 20 feet above the creek.
That boulder in front of the falls is about 15 feet high.
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These pictures don't do justice to the size of these rocks. The one on the left is about 3/4 the size of a school bus.
Climbing back up.
This is a group of eighth graders on a field trip. One of the girls had me and Dot in stitches. She was crying and whining and telling the teacher she wanted him to carry her. When he told her no, she said she was going to call her mother and her mother would carry her. That was a hoot.
The fog is getting denser.
The parking lot after the hike.
On the way back to the cabin after our hike.
The trees were getting a lot of color in them as you can see.
It was still patchy fog in places.
After the hike we went back to the cabin and ate our sandwiches and sat around for a bit. The sky started to clear so I asked Dot if she wanted to play a round of frisbee golf. She said she had never done that before but she was willing to try it.
This was on the way to the frisbee course.
One of the downed trees in the park. This one took out a power line.
There is a wildlife viewing area just off the frisbee course and this is the trail going down to that.
The viewing area. We didn't see any wildlife, wrong time of day probably.
On the frisbee golf course. The object in the foreground is what you try to get your frisbee into on each hole.
After our golf game, we rode around the park for a bit and took a side road to do some exploring. This is looking down toward Trenton.
The power line comes up the hillside here. The little specks on the green field are cattle.
Zoomed in with the telephoto lens.
As we started to leave that part of the ridge, Dot stopped and said there was a deer in the distance. This is using the telephoto again as the deer was a good 200 yards away.
The deer turned out to be a doe with a baby. The baby was well past the fawn stage, but was still hanging out with mom.
We found another clearing on the ridge and took this picture of Trenton. You can make out the MacDonald's, Hardee's, and Pizza Inn signs. The road in the background is I-59.
Wednesday turned out to be a pretty good day. Unfortunately the weather forecast was calling for rain Wednesday night, and a cloudy morning on Thursday with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. See you for the next day.
Enjoy !
P.S.
If you want me to ADD your name/email address to my emaillist when I add new photos to this website, email me at the address below and I will gladly add your name and address. If your name is already on the list, no problem.
Email to Jack Woodward mailto: jackwoodward66@hotmail.com
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