Donna is working on getting her 100 miles for the club this year. She said she researched this hike so off we went on our day off. This total hike is 3.5 miles. However, what we did not know it that we needed to be part mountain goat get up on down this short loop. We started off with high hopes taking the long way around thinking we wanted the shortest route possible after we saw the falls.
It was quite hilly but about 3/4 of the way up you start on switch backs that have no ledge. There is enough room for one person. If people were hiking in the opposite direction one of us had to stop to let the other pass by. I thought Donna might want to write the post but she stated we don’t cuss in the blog so she needed to be excused from telling her side of the story. If you are a long time reader, you know that I am afraid of heights. There were a few places on the way down the mountain where I had to stop, cuss, gird my loins and keep going.
You can see the entire upper geyser basin from the top of overlook. We saw two geysers go off. I believe it was Daisy and the Lakeside Geyser. We were exhausted when we finished from emotional and physical trauma of that trail. If you just want to see the fall, I recommend that you take the fork in the road where it says .7 mile to the falls. This is relatively flat and family friendly. If you take the longer loop be ready to traverse terrifying heights.
Have you hike the loop? What did you think?
We’ve not hiked that trail. But when we lived in Colorado, I looked for an easy Sunday hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. I didn’t read past where it said “easy hike.” And it was–for the first half mile. The remaining 8 miles was better suited for mountain goats. After we got home, and could move again, I pulled the trail info back up, thinking I was going to call Rocky Mountain and complain. Right after it said “easy,” it clearly mentioned the word “difficult.” We feel your pain.
I wrote my own comments in the book just in case we forget. I put ‘never, ever again’ in all caps.