Where am I? -- Volume I

[Rick Quinn]

I was thinking along the Snake River in Idaho Falls.

Well, there's no G in Snake, and Idaho is pretty darned close to Montana, so I'd say probably not. I'm gonna take a wild guess here, and assume these are closer to home for our friend glc. I'll just bet that these are the Grand Falls, on Shoal Creek, near Joplin, Missouri!

Rick

[Rick Quinn]

If we're doing waterfalls, I have a good one:

Take a good look at this crazy thing, and see if you can figure out what the heck it's doing!



After a heavy rain, the water has been known to take on an unusual hue



Can anybody name that waterfall? And while you're at it, tell me....

Where am I?

Rick

[glc]

Rick is correct!

[Utahtea]

If we're doing waterfalls, I have a good one:

Take a good look at this crazy thing, and see if you can figure out what the heck it's doing!



After a heavy rain, the water has been known to take on an unusual hue



Can anybody name that waterfall? And while you're at it, tell me....

Where am I?

Rick

This one I know because we've done the hike twice! Cameron Falls, Waterton National Park, Alberta, Canada.

My picture from our 2012 trip. What I remember most about this hike is finding a pile of STEAMING bear poop right on the trail! YIKES....and we kept going!



Utahtea

[Rick Quinn]

This one I know because we've done the hike twice! Cameron Falls, Waterton National Park, Alberta, Canada.

What I remember most about this hike is finding a pile of STEAMING bear poop right on the trail! YIKES....and we kept going!

Utahtea

STEAMING, no less! That'll get your juices flowing, especially in Grizzly territory! As most of y'all are aware, Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta literally borders Glacier National Park in Montana, and that whole part of the Rockies is Bear Country, for real.

Getting back to our waterfall: Utahtea, you just got another BINGO!

I love this waterfall; it's almost as if Rube Goldberg (or Salvador Dali) had a hand in the design. The business about the falls changing color after a heavy rain is something I heard about when I was there, but when I did my research later, I discovered that there's actually just one documented occurrence of the phenomenon. After a big storm in the summer of 2009, there was so much red sediment in the runoff that the falls ran pink for a short while. Under the right conditions, it could happen again, but despite anything you might hear to the contrary, this is NOT a regular occurrence:



Waterton Lakes is such a pretty National Park, with a whole different feel to it, especially when compared to Glacier, its sister park in Montana. Waterton really is all about the Lakes, and the lakes are gorgeous; a landscape architect with an unlimited budget couldn't have done as well, putting all those elements together. Almost makes you wonder if there is, perhaps, a Grand Design.







The experience is never complete without a beautiful road:



And a fancy hotel:



And here's the source of the red sediment that turned Cameron Falls pink! (However briefly...)



The Canadian border is currently closed to tourists, due to the pandemic. When it opens again, Waterton Lakes is an excellent relatively easy add-on for anyone planning a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana.

Rick
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Moderator Note: This thread continues here -- (too many images in this thread, slowing down the server, so needed a break in the action)

[landmariner]

But hey, before we get too far removed from the Gila Cliff Dwellings and the Trail of the Mountain Spirits, I wanted to take the opportunity to present you folks with a relevant excerpt from Arizona and New Mexico: 25 Scenic Side Trips. Some of you already have a copy of the book. Me, I've got a couple of 'em ;-), but it had been quite a long time since I'd even looked at Scenic Side Trip #2 (per se). When I reread it this morning, I realized that it's a very good example of something I tried to do throughout the book, for the benefit of road trippers like yourselves. Scenic Side Trips aren't just about the big attractions (in this case, the Gila Cliff Dwellings). Scenic Side Trips emphasize the roads that you take to get there, because on a road trip, the journey overall is (or should be) more important than the destinations. Allow me to show you what I mean by that:
<snip>
GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS NATIONAL MONUMENT

[I]Leaving Caballo Lake, head west on NM 152 up into an impressive wall of mountains known as the Black Range, or Sierra Diablo. If you like to drive, you’ll love this road. This segment, known as the Geronimo Trail Scenic Byway, is widely considered one of the finest driving roads in the United States. You’ll negotiate one S curve after another on a climb to almost 9,000 feet at Emory Pass, which marks the Continental Divide. Pull off the road at the scenic viewpoint for awesome vistas and some great photographs.
<Snip>

So there it is. Rick's notion of useful, practical information for someone who might be interested in making the drive to the Gila Cliff Dwellings!

Great write-up on Gila Cliff Dwellings NM. Dialing it up for my Fall 2023 Road Trip.