We generally plan our adventures to happen Monday thru Friday, to avoid weekend
crowds. This works well although
some popular destinations are crowded any time. This is contingent of course on the weather since we don’t want to get caught in the rain somewhere. In the winter I check the
forecast for warm, sunny days to go hiking. The rest of the time looking for cool
days with maybe some cloud cover, leaving the hot days of summer for
swimming. Today is forecast to be the
‘coolest’ day of the week with temps only in the low ‘70s, but it’s
Sunday, we’ll see...
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Duck Shelter
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Saturday night is ‘movie
night’ at our house, last night we watched the first of the ‘Lord of
the Ring’ trilogy, and coincidently just last week I heard of a waterfall named
‘Middle Earth Twin Falls’ which is close to another fall I have been wanting to
see for a long time ‘Valley of the Blind Falls’. So, there you go, we have our
destination! While the ‘when’ to go may
take a little planning, the ‘where’ can be totally random and inspiration can
come from anything.
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along the 'dripline'
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Valley of the Blind
is just within the boundary of Sam’s Throne Special Interest Area, and close to Highway 123, we keep
our fingers crossed hoping there aren't too many others on the trail. About a half mile south of the signed
entrance to Sam’s Throne we pull off Hwy. 123 on unsigned FR 92146B, this is a
nice big parking area with room for six or more cars, we park near the
locked gate. |
rock overhang
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Around the gate we
follow the old road, now apparently an ATV trail downhill a short way to a 90°
turn left. Still going downhill now a
little steeper we soon come to another 90° turn back to the right, we leave the
road here turning left (southeast) on a faint trail that puts us along the base
of a low bluffline.
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the bluffs get taller
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The bluffs get
taller as we go and right away turn a little more southward just before a
little shelter cave. The volunteer trail
we’re on is a good one, mostly on the level and easy enough to see following the
bluffline south. All along the bluffline today, thanks to recent rains, water is dripping off the top. Some runs down the smooth stone face of the bluff, and some drips off the overhanging ledges far above us. |
many tunnels and passages
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The trail seems to follow the ‘drip line’ and
‘raindrops keep falling on my head’ helps keep us cool on this warm spring
day. All along this stretch of bluffline
are many shelters, most of them small and shallow. One though is quite long maybe 100 yards with
a low roof, we call it Duck Shelter.
Also, there are some small caves with
entrances at both ends, I suppose that makes them tunnels not caves, in a couple places the best route onward takes us through a tunnel. |
bluff separation
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The whole area is very scenic along the
dripping bluffs with all the fresh green ferns and mosses everywhere. We come to a dead-end up on a ledge and must
backtrack 100 feet then down and around a little point, soon we pass a couple rock climbing areas
with many bolts anchored in the solid rock face of the bluff. Between two of these
climbing areas is a tall wet weather waterfall, maybe 60 feet or more it looks
pretty good today but I’m sure it dries out fast.
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leaning pedestal
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More small shallow shelters then a massive section
of the bluff shows evidence of separation away from the bluffline with long
deep cracks running top to bottom down both sides. Afterwards the bluffline begins turning to
the east and into the Valley of the Blind.
A small pedestal rock leaning against the bluffline creates a short
tunnel that the trail passes through, then we arrive on a nice rock patio or turtle rock. Known as The Dome this is another impressive climbing area.
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break time at The Dome
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Here Valley of the Blind narrows as we
approach the waterfall, the trail gets rough with lots of loose
rock and thick undergrowth down at the creek which tumbles noisily over big
sharp rocks. At the head of the canyon
is a small grotto with Valley of the Blind Falls plunging from the top. I expected a ‘taller’
waterfall, I don’t know why. Valley of
the Blind Falls is very pretty though, about 15 feet tall and today about 10
feet wide, we linger here while contemplating life and scanning the trail
ahead towards Middle Earth farther south.
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Valley of the Blind Falls
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We cross the creek below
the falls then slip and slide down the steep slope
between the bluff on our left and a big boulder on the right, then behind the
root ball of a huge, downed tree and down some more. Now in ‘Middle Earth’ a lush area of green
moss, clump grass and ferns all around under the dripping overhanging bluffline
and another climbing area. ‘Middle
Earth’ seems totally appropriate for the name of this beautiful area, I can
imagine little Frodo and his friends with their big hairy bare feet walking
along on the soft moss trail.
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in Frodo's footsteps
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A little further we come to Middle Earth Twin Falls, this is a tall fall
close to a hundred feet and wide too, with just a little more flow from the
streams above this will be a truly awesome sight. The head of this box canyon with Middle Earth
Twin Falls pouring off it is pretty awesome itself. A long curving shelter cave
wraps around the bluff and behind the falls, and out in front tons of loose
broken shale litters the long steep slope down to the base of the falls. Having reached our destination, Middle Earth
Twin Falls marks our turn around point.
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Middle Earth Twin Falls
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Heading back the way we
came the scenery is just as beautiful as it was coming in,
we stop at The Dome for snacks and a short break then continue back to the
car and the end of today’s great hike of 3.8 miles with an altitude gain of 470
feet, and oh by the way, we never saw a single soul all day, I guess we should
go hiking on Sundays more often.
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springtime in the forest
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Sam's Throne SIA: Statistics Chart 91 Parking area (P4) on FR 92146B is just half a mile south of Sam's Throne's main entrance on the west side of Highway 123. For more detailed direction on how to get to Sam's Throne see: (26 Chicken Head Wall).
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base map before fair use alterations is property of ArcGIS-
-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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