During our cross-country road trip, we took a short detour to the falls. Not sure what to expect, my wife and I ventured off at the wrong exit while “discussing” the correct route. It was pretty early and our passes were for 0800 so we weren't too bothered by the wrong turn. We followed a narrow, unmarked road passing a couple of cute smaller waterfalls along the way.
After about 15 minutes down that path, we stumbled upon the main parking lot for the falls. We arrived around 0715 and were only the second car in the lot. While I was searching for some type of sign that noted whether it was general parking, I received a slight nudge on my right shoulder. I heard a faint "look", thinking she found the parking info I gazed around at eye level in confusion. A stronger nudge came next with a louder "look" but this time it was followed by a very import word; "up".
I stopped my search and began to slowly move my gaze up, then up and then up. At that point I had to get out of the car to see the entire falls. A mist had filled the early morning air almost as a welcome handshake from this majestic beauty of nature. As we gathered our things for the walk to the falls, we were placed into a slight trance by the sound of water making its permanent mark on the rocks below. Like a siren's song to a weary sailor, we found ourselves being lured into the park.
As we approached the base of the falls, we navigated a small hill that was acting as a stage curtain preventing onlookers from seeing too much from their seats. At the crest of the hill the powerful sounds of the falls had taken shape into a beautiful display of what nature can offer. At this time, around 0745, the number of visitors was fairly small. We were able to easily take unobstructed photographs of the bridge as well as on the bridge.
While still mesmerized by the beauty of the falls, I attempted to convince the beauty next to me to join me on a trip to the top. Not being one to shy away from an adventure, she humored me and joined. As we navigated up the path, I gazed in awe of such sights that I had never seen before. Venturing along the path I had the feeling like I was onset for a Jurassic Park movie. Being from the east coast I am accustomed to certain things. One of those things being normal sized slugs and snails. My world view has been expanded to include such things as 6" slugs and 4' snails that are considered "normal".
My west coast wife chuckled as I stared in amazement at the size of these gross creatures. After a few pictures of my hand next to the snails and slugs we decided that halfway to the top was going to have to satisfy our daily dose of hiking. We still had an entire country to cross, and our adventure was just beginning. We had to make it Shoshone Falls by sunset and the clock was ticking.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I added this to our cross-country itinerary. It was definitely worth the visit. We arrived just before sunset, and it was glorious. The water level was really low, but it was still really cool. The beauty began as we crossed the bridge as the sun was fading in the west. The golf courses down below looked amazing and may warrant another trip with my clubs.
Worth the stop to see and I recommend timing it with the sunset.
Great Goonies add on to a cross country road trip. The day we visited Astoria and ventured down to Haystack looked like it was plucked out of the movie. Although there is no way those kids' road their bikes from their houses to Haystack :)
It was about mid-day, so the tide was coming back but seeing the giant rocks sticking up into the sky was awesome. Even if I wasn't there to appease my inner Goonie, it would have been a cool site.
Parking was tricky but we found a little layby at the top of one of the hills that could hold about 5 or 6 cars.
From there we walked about 10 minutes down to the beach just south of Haystack. The best part was Facetiming my kids and seeing their jealous faces :) and of course that my mom thought I was in Iowa... Not a geography major apparently. Definitely a worthwhile trip for any Goonie, or in the area for those non-Goonies.