The arrival of summer for this teacher means time for another road trip to see some beautiful nature. Inspired by a random post that popped up in my Facebook post months ago, I decided to drive around the southern and western parts of the state visiting various waterfalls.
After conducting some additional research I came up with 12 waterfalls in total. That number was sadly reduced to 11 before I even set forth, as Hanging Lake was closed for trail maintenance. I'd fortunately visited it before, so my main disappointment was with 11 being nowhere near as cool of a number as an even dozen.
Be that as it may, I set off with my first destinations being a couple of cascades near Creede (my love of alliteration can truly be shameless).
It was good to stretch my legs after five hours in the car, even if it was to walk only a sixth of a mile from the
Silver Thread Campground. The first view I got of
South Clear Creek Falls was a very promising start to this entire endeavor.
Even better news -- the falls were absolutely roaring.
Even better
better news -- you can walk right to the base of the falls...
...and also off to the immediate side, where I took a series of images and stitched them together as a panorama to capture their full height.
From there a short drive brings you to
North Clear Creek Falls, which at more than 100 feet high were much taller than I'd expected.
Another panorama was required to capture the falls and creek together.
Falls are always more impressive viewed from the bottom than the top, but there is no trail down from the parking area. Undeterred, I carefully followed a faint route down from the plateau (clearly other visitors had had the same idea) until I reached the rocks along the creek. From there it was a relatively easy scramble to this spot.
Two falls down, both impressive in their own ways, with many more still to go!
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