Two sights close out the gorge floor. High on the cliff, weathering has carved the Sphinx Head — a heavy brow and long nose that visitors spot from the final staircase. Below it, Lower Falls pours a soft curtain of water into a shaded plunge pool ringed by rock and overhung by hemlocks, a scene artists have favored for generations. This stop marks the turnaround of the loop, where the trail climbs from the canyon floor to the rim — and where the six-mile Grandma Gatewood Trail departs for Cedar Falls and Ash Cave, a thread the tour picks up along the drive. Narration covers the climb out and frames the gorge's most tranquil view before the return leg begins.
Halfway down this last staircase, give your eyes a job: up and to the left, where the cliff bulges out over the gorge. A heavy brow. A long, broken nose. That's the Sphinx Head, a face the weather worked out of solid sandstone — the same pits and rust stains you've watched streaking these cliffs all day, wind and water as sculptors, and this rock will collect faces all day long if you let it.
Then the stairs end, and the gorge saves its gentlest picture for last. Lower Falls slides over a smooth lip of stone and drops in one soft curtain into a plunge pool the cliffs keep in shade most of the day — dark green water, a bowl of rock, hemlocks leaning over the rim like they're trying to see in. This might be the most painted view in these hills, and standing here, you can see why nobody's gotten tired of it.
This is the far end of the walk — the turnaround. From here the trail climbs out of the canyon and runs the rim back to where you started. But mark this spot, because something else leaves the gorge here: a six-mile footpath bound for Cedar Falls and Ash Cave, named for a grandmother these hills still talk about. Her story belongs to Ash Cave — Boone keeps it there, and it's worth the keeping.
Now the honest part: the climb out is the real work of this walk — a steady stack of steps back up to the rim, the one stretch that'll get your breath going. There's no race. Take it a flight at a time, keep a hand on the rail, pause when you want to, and keep the kids ahead of you where you can see them. You've done the hard half; this is just the bill for it, and the view up top is your receipt.