Can't Believe We Had Never Been Here

Before leaving Silt, we visited Rifle Falls State Park, located about 25 miles from our campground. What a great find! We are amazed we had never tried to go there before. There are 3 waterfalls in the rushing waters of East Rifle Creek. Technically, there is one fall that splits into 3 as it comes over the limestone cliff.

We were able to hike up close to the falls.

And even go behind them.

The falling water has also carved out caves in the cliff.

And it washed away part of this hillside but this tree is tenaciously hanging on.

I saw this tree as we were walking in the area. I think all those nodules on the trunks may be burls. If so, I would have loved to bring one back to Arizona and turn it into a bowl.

The trail led up above the falls and this was our view beyond the waterfalls.

All Kinds of Water

In our past visits to Yellowstone I don't remember so many waterfalls.  We enjoyed three on this trip.  The first we stopped at was Keplers Cascades.

Of course, there is the falls on the Yellowstone River in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

We also drove to Tower Falls in the northern part of the park.

Yellowstone lake is beautiful.

It snowed on the mountains Monday night and we got this beautiful view of the Tetons across Yellowstone Lake.

Stunning, Incredible, Spectacular

That is all we had to say after driving the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. And we are from Colorado and very familiar with Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park. Maybe it is because this is new and different scenery, I don't know. But it is wonderful.

It had been 23 years since our first visit to Glacier. That time we didn't drive this road. So it was number one on our agenda for this visit. Here in West Glacier where we are staying, the elevation is 3220 and the highest peak, Heaven's Peak, is 8987 ft. Grand Lake, Colorado, at the west entrance to Rocky Mountain NP is 8369 and 12,183 ft. But the Glacier mountains are certainly beautiful, even if they aren't as high.

The Going to the Sun road was built in the 1930s by the CCC--Civilian Conservation Corps.

As the name of Glacier suggests, there are glaciers and snow fields that produce a lot of waterfalls.

The mountains are beautiful.

The crowds were large and the parking crowded at the view points. And in places the road was very narrow.

There are two large lakes in McDonald and St. Mary. This is a view of McDonald. The water in the lakes and rivers is incredibly clear.  Artist Charles M. Russell and his wife built a cabin on Lake McDonald, called Bull Head Lodge, where many visiting artists spent time painting the beauties of Glacier National Park.

This eye-catching island is in the middle of St. Mary's Lake.

This is the only wildlife we saw.

These open-topped buses are used for tours of the park along the Going to the Sun road.

These lights hang in the lobby of the Lake McDonald Lodge, built in 1913.

Glacier on the northern edge of Montana and just across the border in Canada is Waterton Lakes National Park.  The two parks are an International Peace Park World Heritage Site.   You can read about our visit to Waterton Lakes in 2012 here.

Waterfalls

A number of our blogging friends frequently take hikes to view waterfalls. We had hoped to see some during our time in Tennessee and Kentucky, but that didn't happen. When we read there were several waterfalls in the area around Bayfield,WI, a hike to see some was a must. We drove to Copper Falls State Park near Mellen and took the Doughboy Trail to view the Copper Falls, Brownstone Falls and Cascades on the Bad and Tyler Forks rivers. The trail was built by former World War I vets and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).



The trail crossed the Bad River.



This is Copper Falls. Settlers in the area named the falls Copper for the color of the water. It isn't caused by copper or by iron ore, but by tannins from the trees in the area.



Next, we came to Brownstone Falls.





The trail passed through a beautiful forest.



There is so much shade, the shingle roof of this shelter has grown a healthy covering of moss.



Here, you can see some of the work done by the CCC. There were lots and lots of steps! For there to be waterfalls, there have to be hills for the water to fall down, I guess.





The river is placid at the base of one of the falls.



This is the observation tower. The only thing you can see from the top is the tree canopy, but we had to climb the 74 steps to the top to find that out.



Here are several views of the Cascades area of the park.







Finally, we saw some waterfalls! Even though the park is very busy and there were lots of folks on the trail, it was a great hike.

A Couple of Hikes

When we began planning for our trip east this summer, I looked over posts by blogger friends Danny and Shula, who had explored Tennessee and Kentucky in 2011. They often hiked to waterfalls and I was determined to do the same. We haven't done a good job of planning our days around that kind of hikes. But Tuesday, our last day in Sevierville, we checked out Laurel Falls in Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

The short trail is paved, though the asphalt is rough and broken.



It passes through dense forest.



We were too late in Spring to see many blooming laurel, but we did spot a few. At least, I guess these are laurel. This type of plant was all over the hillsides and it had the only flowers we saw.



A bridge crosses the creek between the upper falls



and the lower falls.



This small pond is next to the bridge, before the stream falls to the lower level.



This beuatiful butterfly hovered around us as we walked one section of the trail.



When we arrived at the trail head, there were several cars already there. As we hiked up to the falls, a number of people were coming down. But when we reached the stream, there were only a few people there. I think we timed our arrival just right. As we hiked back down to our car, there was a steady stream of people going up. And when we reached the parking area, all spaces were full and cars were parked on both sides of the road and in the middle. If we ever come back to the Smokey Mountains, it won't be in summer.

We are now in Kentucky and the Boone Trace and Wilderness Road pass through Levi Jackson State Park, we where are staying for two nights.



You remember "Daniel Boone...King of the Wild Frontier" don't you? Or are are you too young to remember that song from the 1950s? He led a party into Kentucky in 1775, establishing a way from the eastern settlements through the Cumberland Gap into what is now Kentucky. A small section of that trace or road is here in the park and we hiked there today.

We again were in a beautiful, dense forest.





McHargue's Mill is next to where the trace crosses the state highway that passes through the park.



The small mill is open at times, but not when we were there.



We even got to see another small waterfall at the mill.



And what is called a Library of Mountain Millstones, which contains the largest known collection of old mill stones, is located in front of the mill.





We spotted this turtle along the trail.