This is Cloudland Canyon. This view/overlook was a very short walk from where I had parked and it was just so beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky and bright sunshine. I was hoping that the geocache wasn't at the bottom of this puppy. Hopes in that regard were soon dashed :)
After a short walk along the rim of the canyon I got to the trail head and this lovely message appeared. At this point I was already hearing rushing water and started down into the canyon. The trails were pretty steep and there were a LOT of stairs to get down the areas where the canyon walls were just to steep for a trail. There are 2 main waterfalls, marked as such, and although I did get near them I didn't take a single picture of either. Go figure. The trip down the canyon sides and along the bottom was just incredibly beautiful. Lots of noisy, rushing water, rocks galore some of which were absolutely giagantic and one just had to wonder what it must have been like when they came down. It was a long time ago for sure because the floor of the canyon is heavily forested.
Still going down but basically at the base of the canyon.
Looking down along the floor of the canyon as I crossed a bridge to the other side.
A fast, noisy waterfall that was not included in the two waterfalls to be seen. This sucker was probably 40-50 feet high and again, just beautiful.
Just included this one because it's pretty :)
The geocache was located in the hollow base of the tree pretty much in the center of this photo. Is this gorgeous or what?!?!? Due to the terrain and the canyon playing a bit of havoc with the gps readings this find took quite a while. I did NOT rush to leave the area as I was a bit tired and I knew what the return trip was going to be like.
After resting and cleaning up a bit I got back in the car and headed off to another state historical site for a pretty easy multi-cache where I learned a bit of history as well. From there it was off to Fort Mountain State Park and yet another 'mountain' trek. The trek for this one was much, much easier as we took a nice walk around a lake to find the fork in the trail to get to the cache. The cache description was spot on... the last 2/10ths of a mile were severe, headed right up the mountain. No meandering back and forth... straight up. I got to the area, found the cache, and agin took a bit of a break. Heading back was so much easier this time. Downhill and level the whole way :)
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