The big hike (pics at last!)
So... a month ago, now, some friends and I went for a hike through some rather scenic terrain. Thanks to a combination of technical difficulties, assignments, and general laziness, I haven't put my pics online...
We started at Palouse Falls State Park - home to one of the most scenic waterfalls in the state:
Of course, rather than just stay at the state park, we were planning to go hiking! We started by following a trail around the rim of the horseshoe, to the left, towards the falls. There were occasional gullies through which the falls could be seen.
The view down the canyon from there was quite impressive.
This little river turns sharply to the right and then drops off the falls:
The little waterfalls there are really nifty up close.
We stopped there long enough to take a picture of (almost) everyone: Left to right, that's Andy, Craig, Josh, and Brendan. Not seen: Myself and Melody. I told them I was going to take a picture, and then shot it while they were getting into place - the one with them all set just looked stiff.
We hiked back down towards the big falls long enough to see the rock fin right next to them:
It looks so innocent for the top of a two hundred foot drop...
(note that we were really, really careful around the top of the falls - that's seriously fast moving, deep water there)
After seeing that, we turned around and started up the canyon.
A few miles further on, we came to a spot where we really couldn't continue up the canyon bottom, so we found the coolest notch in the world to hike up: it started a good hundred feet off the canyon floor (we had to climb a scree pile to get to it), and then it was just a six-foot-wide slice in the canyon wall that rose up to the top.
Andy gives Brendan a hand
More of the notch:
Doesn't look like much from the top...
Until you look down. (Melody, at the entrance to the notch)
After topping the notch, we hiked to the top of a ridge, then stopped for lunch.
See those trees off in the distance?
These trees?
That's where we started.
This is where we're going: (Josh was talking about something - I think it was D&D at that point)
Don't let the zoom lens fool you: It was really more like this:
Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures for a good long while, and by the time I started again, it was dark enough that they didn't come out. (I could have sworn I took several of the bridge...) Anyways, we hiked all the way to the end of the straight length of canyon, and then another two-three miles to the right. All said and done, we covered ten miles, all on only the barest of trails. The weather was great, the hike was beautiful, and a fun time was had by all.
We started at Palouse Falls State Park - home to one of the most scenic waterfalls in the state:
Of course, rather than just stay at the state park, we were planning to go hiking! We started by following a trail around the rim of the horseshoe, to the left, towards the falls. There were occasional gullies through which the falls could be seen.
The view down the canyon from there was quite impressive.
This little river turns sharply to the right and then drops off the falls:
The little waterfalls there are really nifty up close.
We stopped there long enough to take a picture of (almost) everyone: Left to right, that's Andy, Craig, Josh, and Brendan. Not seen: Myself and Melody. I told them I was going to take a picture, and then shot it while they were getting into place - the one with them all set just looked stiff.
We hiked back down towards the big falls long enough to see the rock fin right next to them:
It looks so innocent for the top of a two hundred foot drop...
(note that we were really, really careful around the top of the falls - that's seriously fast moving, deep water there)
After seeing that, we turned around and started up the canyon.
A few miles further on, we came to a spot where we really couldn't continue up the canyon bottom, so we found the coolest notch in the world to hike up: it started a good hundred feet off the canyon floor (we had to climb a scree pile to get to it), and then it was just a six-foot-wide slice in the canyon wall that rose up to the top.
Andy gives Brendan a hand
More of the notch:
Doesn't look like much from the top...
Until you look down. (Melody, at the entrance to the notch)
After topping the notch, we hiked to the top of a ridge, then stopped for lunch.
See those trees off in the distance?
These trees?
That's where we started.
This is where we're going: (Josh was talking about something - I think it was D&D at that point)
Don't let the zoom lens fool you: It was really more like this:
Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures for a good long while, and by the time I started again, it was dark enough that they didn't come out. (I could have sworn I took several of the bridge...) Anyways, we hiked all the way to the end of the straight length of canyon, and then another two-three miles to the right. All said and done, we covered ten miles, all on only the barest of trails. The weather was great, the hike was beautiful, and a fun time was had by all.