Climbing the western branch past Conestoga, Mohican, Delaware, Seneca and Cayuga falls — and the two shapes of waterfall you'll see, the stepped 'wedding cake' and the sheer 'bridal veil'.
Now you're climbing Ganoga Glen proper, and the falls come thick and fast — Conestoga, Mohican, Delaware, Seneca, Cayuga, one after another, each with its own character. This is a good place to learn to read them, because these falls come in two basic shapes and once you see it you can't unsee it.
Some of them are what geologists actually call the wedding-cake type — the water comes down in a series of neat stepped tiers, like a tiered cake, bouncing white from ledge to ledge. Others are the bridal-veil type — a single sheer drop where the water falls free and spreads into a thin, filmy veil. You'll see both all day, sometimes right next to each other, and the difference is all in the rock underneath: where the hard and soft layers stack up evenly you get the steps, and where one thick hard layer juts out over softer rock that's washed away beneath, you get the free-falling veil.
Every one of these falls has a name — most of them, as Boone will tell you, the names of Native American nations. Keep climbing; take breaks; drink your water. The trail keeps close to the water and the steps stay wet, so keep your eyes on your feet between falls, and lift your eyes to look only when you've stopped. The biggest one of all is coming.
Photo: Doug Kerr · CC BY-SA 2.0
