Sat, Apr 25 2009 - Wildflower Hike - Upper to Lower Whitewater Falls (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Geri Dominguez Participants: Geri Dominguez, Tony C, gheetl, cliff j, Ann, Sharath, Larry Cooper, Amy, Shane, Caroline, Sunnie, Sean T, Rhett Smith, preeda

Click for Album

Write Up:
Whew, what an adventure!  As we arrived to the trailhead, we realized the day was a lot warmer than expected and we prepared ourselves for a summer-like hike.  We started out at the trailhead at the bottom of the parking area to avoid the paved tourist path.  This proved to be a pretty strenuous climb, involving the first of many sets of stairs that we would encounter.  After viewing the waterfall, we went back down on the spur trail, and then down along the foothills trail winding our way down into the Whitewater River basin.  We snapped some photos of the pretty wildflowers and enjoyed the scenic view down along the water.  

What a surprise we had when we came to a rocky boulder area with whitewater rapids flowing through it.  We stopped and took many photos and sat on the rocks for a little while just enjoying the gorgeous day.  We then continued our adventure and walked along the trail to a spot about 1/2 way between the waterfalls.  We ate lunch in a clearing next to the water, and enjoyed the company of a friendly snake who visted Ann and stuck his head out of the water to say hello.  We then climbed up to the overlook for Lower Whitewater Falls and took a quick break there.  On the way back, many of us realized we were running low on water, but that we had enough to share among the group to make it back, although some of the more adventurous decided to drink straight from the river on the way back (fortunately no one has reported giardia yet!)  We also stopped at the rocks on the way back and played in the water a bit to cool us off before the last big climb out of the river basin. 

This turned out to be a moderate to strenuous D4 hike (I will change the event description) rather than a D3.  Tony's calculations for the trip indicate that it's a 9.1 mile hike with 1800 feet of total ascent.  The hike proved to be very scenic and enjoyable, and definitely one to lead again in the future. 

After the hike, most of us stopped at a mexican restaurant in Walhalla where we immediately downed LOTS of cold water and iced tea, and enjoyed the food and company. :-) 

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/gbearatl/WhitewaterFallsHike0425#

Tony's pics:  http://tonycicc.smugmug.com/gallery/8031336_yVUpg

---