Angel Falls

This week it was neither overpoweringly hot, nor about to thunderstorm, so I finally went hiking again! I walked the Angel Falls Rapids trail - the full two miles this time, all the way out to the rapids. I finally saw one of the places people ask about the most! I also saw, not only some new wildflowers, but the fruits of some of the flowers I saw last time I walked this trail in late May.

I saw a lot of yellow flowers. Yellow seems to be the default color at this time of year, late summer getting into early fall. Yellow and white and sometimes purple. This could be a black-eyed Susan, but as I've mentioned before, there are just too many similar-shaped yellow flowers for me to be able to say.

Most of the trail had view like this - above the river, with glimpses of the water through the trees. There were only a couple of places where you could get down without too much trouble. This is so the trail doesn't get washed out every single time it rains! It's above flood stage - for the most part.

These were all over the place! Whorled Wood Aster - there were a few that were more full, but most of them looked similar to this - kind of bedraggled, with petals missing here and there.

False Solomon's Seal berries!

You can see that this cobble-bar has been scoured pretty recently - we had a lot of rain a week and a half ago, and the water levels are only just getting back down to normal.

This was a rapid - but not THE rapid. I have no sense of distance and so I kept hearing the water get louder, and think that this time it was going to be Angel Falls Rapid, and then the trail just kept going. This happened several times.

Jewelweed! Also called "touch-me-not" because of the way the seed pods explode without warning when you brush against them...

There was a little side trail along a stream flowing into the river. Of course I had to check it out. This is where I saw the jewelweed blooming. Looking back at the bridge you can see how high the trail is above water level. The bridge was covered in about a half inch of sand - deposited there the last time the river was up.

Partridge berries! And a red maple leaf. There are leaves turning here and there - not all on one tree, but each tree is dropping a few leaves. And along the road the sumacs and black gums are starting to turn.

Insect graffiti! Is this an abandoned valentine?

Poor little boulder, lost in the woods... If he could just make it to the river, he'd get to be part of a rapid with all the other boulders... (My mind goes in weird directions when I'm off hiking by myself. This is just a small sample.)

Spiderwort!

This was one of the smoother sections of the trail. Parts of it are gravel, and parts of it are rocky - it's fairly level but it's not always easy footing. This soft dirt and sand was nice to walk on.

Hickory nuts! The squirrels are getting busy...

A teeny toad! These things are impossible to spot until they jump, and sometimes even then you have to watch for them to jump again before you can spot where they are now!

Either someone got very ambitious with his Boy Scout Knife (not to mention breaking the law...) or there are beavers somewhere around! This was a very freshly cut tree... possibly it was abandoned by the beaver because when it fell it got caught up against another tree so didn't make it down to the ground. Just a few more bites would do it, though...

There was a side trail down to the river. This was the path that people floating downstream use to portage around the rapids. I went down to get a view from upstream.

I stood in one spot and took pictures of three different types of yellow flowers.

Tiny handprints - raccoons have come this way! I went around the muddy section of the cobble bar...

So here's where it starts out calm.

You can see that the water was up recently - not only is the grass still bent over, but half of it is buried in sand that was dumped when the water was moving fast enough to carry it.

The upper end of the rapids. The main rapid is not quite in view - it's partly behind the rocks.

This phlox smelled so sweet...

This vein of coal was one of the landmarks I knew to look for as a sign I was getting close to Angel Falls Rapids. The photo above shows my Nalgene water bottle as a reference for how thick the vein is. Below is a view looking back at the rock outcrop with its black stripe.

This is the view from the little overlook platform at Angel Falls Rapids. It's getting a little overgrown but you'd be able to see pretty well once the leaves fall. However, this was not good enough. I went on past the platform and took the portage trail down to the river.

This is well downstream of the main rapid - which is of course where you would want to put your boat back in the water. I was standing on a huge sand bank high above the river - where everything gets dropped once it's made it through the faster section.

Nobody's home anymore...

 This is Virginia Buttonweed. It likes wetlands and disturbed areas. I'd say this riverside sandhill qualifies. Notice all the bits of coal that are mixed in with the sand.

 

Buttonbush. I've seen it blooming but not fruiting before. The flowers are basically big spherical poofs.

This is Flowering Spurge - or possibly False Flowering Spurge. As you might expect from the name, they look very much alike.

A thick strata of sand and sticks, woven together... along with a couple of random tires.

I didn't think I could get down to the water without getting into quicksand, but when I walked across this section I was able to pick my way through to some rocks and get down that way.

Downstream...

Upstream...

 

Backwards... this is a view of where I came out onto the rocks. Not much of a trail! Some nice bits of red there in those leaves.

I'm pretty sure that cliff is Angel Falls Overlook. There's a trail that goes along the river, parallel to the one I was on, and then climbs up to the top of the cliff in a long series of switchbacks! I'm not sure I'd be able to do the whole thing but I might do the lower section - there's a waterfall just before the trail starts climbing up.

I kept making my way upstream on the rocks. The river was low enough that there was plenty of room to walk. The picture above is looking downstream, below is upstream.

And looking straight out.

I sat down in the shade for a minute and ate a handful of trail mix, then went and climbed out onto some of the rocks that were right by the river.

Look at all those thin layers.

That big white churning area is Angel Falls itself - a dangerous underhang which has caused fatalities in the past.

This is looking back at where I just climbed! I went up on the rock at the right, next to that tree, and went around behind the big one, then climbed down from the one on the left. Fun fun fun!

This is Cardinal Flower.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit berries!

From just one spot, the angle of the sun intersected with this spider web...

These berries I am not sure of... but I wouldn't eat them.

When I got back to the trailhead I went down on the sandbar by the river to get a few views.

This is the downstream end of the sandbar, where it's mostly mud - the lightest stuff was the last to settle. I was very careful to walk around this - and even so I slid and nearly fell when I stepped in a slippery patch.

 

I had lunch in the picnic area, and then changed into my swimsuit. I don't know how in the world I made it all the way to the end of August without getting into the river! I went to the section that was mostly sand - away from the mud, but somewhat sheltered from the current. It wasn't very deep, and I didn't feel like venturing out very far, so I just sort of lay in the water and crawled back and forth. I felt something on my leg and got out Very Fast, but then realized it was minnows just trying to help me exfoliate. No big deal! I stayed in for a while longer. It was a great way to cool off after a hike.