July 4, 3024
Today we are at Rifle Falls State Park. We had a blessing here. When we turned into the park entrance there was ranger holding a sign that said park at capacity. He was waving everybody right back to the exit. We went a bit further down the road to find a place to turn around and when we came back, I noticed the guy was not standing there anymore, so we turned back into the park and they had one vehicle entrance available. we pulled in and found a parking spot and will be walking to the Falls!
A very short distance from where we parked the car we come to “the main attraction” Rifle Falls. Three beautiful waterfalls coming into a pool below it.
From the falls, we hiked along the side of the mountain base which is comprised of multiple small caverns set in the wall.
From the caverns we took a short mile long hike along a trail known as the Bobcat Trail. We passed by this Cliffside tree with impressive root structure before passing what looked to be some old growth Fremont Cottonwood trees. They are part of the Aspen family.
The Bobcat trail originally started off winding its way up and down through a wooded area and has now opened up to a more exposed hike along a scrub oak hillside
The trail comes along side and above this small creek with some calming water noise. We were attempting to get to an area on the map identified as the cascades, but it seemed a little farther than we had initially thought and we’ve decided to turn around as yesterday was a pretty rigorous hike for my parents.
We return to where the bobcat Trail split off and went the opposite direction from where we had come from the Falls and caverns. The direction we are going now takes us to an overlook at the top of the falls. They have built small lookout points, jetting out from the top of the cliff and a walkway over the river leading to the drop.
After a final look at the front of the falls, I returned to the car feeling blessed to have been able to get in the park.
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