Waters Meet — the Crossroads

Here you are at Waters Meet — the true heart of the Falls Trail, and an important spot to get your bearings, because this is where the loop begins and ends. Look at the water: two separate mountain streams come tumbling down out of two different canyons and join right here to become Kitchen Creek, the creek you've been climbing alongside. The canyon coming down on your left, to the west, is Ganoga Glen. The one coming down on your right, to the east, is Glen Leigh. Each one is its own staircase of waterfalls, and our loop climbs up ONE of them and comes down the OTHER.

Here's our plan, so you know where we're going. We're going to bear LEFT and climb up Ganoga Glen first — that's the longer, and to my eye the grander, of the two branches, and it saves the tallest fall of them all for near the top. Then we'll cross the quiet forest along the top, and come back DOWN the eastern branch, Glen Leigh, which is steeper and wilder. When we get back to this exact spot, the loop is done, and we'll head down the way we first came.

So follow the trail to the LEFT here, and start up Ganoga Glen. The climbing gets more serious now — take it at your own pace, and remember, there's no prize for speed on wet stone. Boone, I think it's time you told them about the man who owned all of this.