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| Hiking | 3.82 Miles |
519 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.82 Miles | | | |
| 519 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was on my list and when I researched it, I planned on just doing the quick hike from the TH at the Campground. So much for planning and since I really didn't have much of a plan B or time for one, I improvised. I had driven by the campground entrance a couple of times already and noted that the gate to the campground was locked. Come to find out, the campground had been and was closed for renovations. There was a parking lot right next to the gate and I suspected that people were still walking in, so I went for it.
Longer walk to the actual campground than I thought, but whatever. At the Campground TH, I ran into a family with several generations present. The older generation was huffing and puffing after hiking uphill to the TH from a trail that came from down below. Come to find out it was the East Fork Trail and they had come from a TH/Picnic area on Hwy 4. We semi hit the trail to the Falls together although, I arrived ahead of them by a few minutes.
There is really only one official viewpoint of the Lower Falls and you basically get one view of them. So it was off to explore alternatives for views, but really there wasn't any, unless you slide, glissade or rappel off the canyon walls somewhere and then fight your way upriver to the base and plunge pool. I crawled out on a rock at the top of the falls and tried to hang the camera over for a downshot, but it was pretty impossible. The light didn't help either. First completely sunny day in weeks, so half of the fall was in bright sunlight and the other in deep shade. There was a route to a small pool and you could play in the water there just before the water plunges and that's what the family did when they arrived.
I noticed another trail taking off from that route, so I followed it upstream to what ended up being the Upper Falls. Nice pool at the base of those falls and you could actually get a good look at them. The Trail seemed to keep going and my thought was to take it back and cross country back to the truck. But first I went back to the original overlook one more time. Ran into the family coming out of their play pool and told them about the other pool upstream. Got to talking to the elders for a bit and they explained how they had come in and arrived at the TH. I suspected that the trail above the Upper Falls might be the same trail that had forked off to hit the TH at the campground. So I decided to take it and the family followed me. Somehow, even though the scenery was different than the trail we had originally gone down, we ended up back at the same TH for the Falls, at the Campground. Ok. I decided to follow the family down the East Fork Trail, with the plan of cutting off early to get to my truck since their TH was 1/2 mile down the highway.
The trail was nice, but after you go across the river at a certain point, the trail leaves the river itself and goes east along a side drainage instead. Once you near the head of that drainage, you turn into another side drainage which basically takes you out of the canyon and up on top. By the time we did that, the TH the family was parked at was pretty close and they encouraged me to stay with them and they'd give me a ride back to my truck to avoid the highway walk. So that's what we did. I still had some things I wanted to do after this, so I cheated on a complete loop. But the return trip on the East Fork trail saved another road walk as well and I was ok with that.
Still had a couple of hours of daylight left, so it was time to do the Jemez Mountain Scenic Drive and check out a few places on it.
I will do this again, but might take a much longer day and try to get to the bottom of the main falls. Will definitely have to be the right time of year to get wet for sure. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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| Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming, "Wow What a Ride!" |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
His wife stayed behind and set up a hammock to relax in, while awaiting our return. 
