Hiking Minnehaha Falls
Australia Travelog #31
Katoomba, NSW - Fri, 29 Dec 2023, 2pm
After hiking Valley of the Waters earlier today with an already-inured ankle I was feeling pretty wrecked. "Here's another falls that's a short walk," Hawk offered. "And it's nearby." So we drove a few miles over to Minnehaha Falls.
I snapped a picture of the crude map at the trailhead kiosk but didn't really pay attention to it as we started down the trail. The terrain was level at first but not really compatible with the notion that there was a waterfall nearby. I pulled up a map on AllTrails.com on my phone (since we were still near enough to civilization to get decent signal) and found it was almost a mile each way to the falls. And a descent of over 250 feet. Oops!
"We can go back...." Hawk offered.
" There is no back, only forward," I reminded her- and myself.
After half a mile the trail started to descend. I was able to short-circuit my imagining of the pain on the way out by focusing on the beauty in which I walk:
Already a long-distance view of the falls had appeared. And this was a fairly tall waterfall, looking to be more than 100' in three tiers, with a big pool at the bottom.
But first the descent would get steeper.
The steepest parts of the trail had stairs. There were several flights of these. On the one hand, yay stairs. They're better than struggling down a steep, slippery hill without falling. On the other hand, my ankle is really not going to like all this ascent on the way up. Well, it looks like the payoff will be worth the price.
We got down to the bottom of the falls, and it was... crowded. Not too surprising. Maybe everybody else thought, "Oh, this falls is right next to the trailhead!" too. 🤣
We rock-hopped over the outlet stream and scrambled around the slick rocks directly opposite the falls. We stood for a while until another couple vacated a nice rock perched a few meters above the water. Then we took the perch for ourselves.
Between the beauty and my sore ankle I was in no rush to leave. But the sky, which had been threating rain all day long, was getting even darker. We didn't want to be caught out in the rain on this trek. We weren't prepared for it, having left our rain coats in the car expecting this would be a short, easy hike. And even though rain itself won't hurt us, I really didn't want to be hiking up out of a canyon and ascending rain-slicked metal stairs on a twisted ankle.
As for the trek back to the car? Well, we made it. The uphill parts were slow going for me. I focused on my resolve to play through the pain. It's not like I had an alternative, anyway. Hawk did take my shoulder bag from me, which helped. It's surprising what a difference of just a few pounds can make.
I hope I'm not totally wrecked for tomorrow. The weather's supposed to be sunny, and it would suck to miss the one sunny day this week due to hobbling around. 😰
Katoomba, NSW - Fri, 29 Dec 2023, 2pm
After hiking Valley of the Waters earlier today with an already-inured ankle I was feeling pretty wrecked. "Here's another falls that's a short walk," Hawk offered. "And it's nearby." So we drove a few miles over to Minnehaha Falls.
I snapped a picture of the crude map at the trailhead kiosk but didn't really pay attention to it as we started down the trail. The terrain was level at first but not really compatible with the notion that there was a waterfall nearby. I pulled up a map on AllTrails.com on my phone (since we were still near enough to civilization to get decent signal) and found it was almost a mile each way to the falls. And a descent of over 250 feet. Oops!
"We can go back...." Hawk offered.
" There is no back, only forward," I reminded her- and myself.
After half a mile the trail started to descend. I was able to short-circuit my imagining of the pain on the way out by focusing on the beauty in which I walk:
Already a long-distance view of the falls had appeared. And this was a fairly tall waterfall, looking to be more than 100' in three tiers, with a big pool at the bottom.
But first the descent would get steeper.
The steepest parts of the trail had stairs. There were several flights of these. On the one hand, yay stairs. They're better than struggling down a steep, slippery hill without falling. On the other hand, my ankle is really not going to like all this ascent on the way up. Well, it looks like the payoff will be worth the price.
We got down to the bottom of the falls, and it was... crowded. Not too surprising. Maybe everybody else thought, "Oh, this falls is right next to the trailhead!" too. 🤣
We rock-hopped over the outlet stream and scrambled around the slick rocks directly opposite the falls. We stood for a while until another couple vacated a nice rock perched a few meters above the water. Then we took the perch for ourselves.
Between the beauty and my sore ankle I was in no rush to leave. But the sky, which had been threating rain all day long, was getting even darker. We didn't want to be caught out in the rain on this trek. We weren't prepared for it, having left our rain coats in the car expecting this would be a short, easy hike. And even though rain itself won't hurt us, I really didn't want to be hiking up out of a canyon and ascending rain-slicked metal stairs on a twisted ankle.
As for the trek back to the car? Well, we made it. The uphill parts were slow going for me. I focused on my resolve to play through the pain. It's not like I had an alternative, anyway. Hawk did take my shoulder bag from me, which helped. It's surprising what a difference of just a few pounds can make.
I hope I'm not totally wrecked for tomorrow. The weather's supposed to be sunny, and it would suck to miss the one sunny day this week due to hobbling around. 😰