4 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain • 1 night
Going down to the bottom of the falls isn't officially a trail. We spoke with a ranger who explained some ways of doing it, but you're responsible for yourself, and it's not 100% safe. We walked along the tracks and then turned left to scrambled down a rough pile of rocks. At the bottom, we had to push through some brush to make it to the edge of the river. In April the water is definitely high! We made it to the falls by clinging to the vertical rocks along the river, shimmying across. The waterfall was just surging! I had no idea it was even out there. Pretty spectacular. To get back, we scrambled up the very dry & steep dusty trail right near the base of the falls. It was tough, two steps forward, one step back. Be careful here, because there are rattlesnakes. Once at the edge of the ridge, it's easy to follow the "trail" back to the normal place people access the falls up top. Spent the night at the small campground right at the falls.
