An Eventful Day in the Right Fork

I always love hiking in the Right Fork. It always seems different than the last time that I was in there. Many other people already knew this, but I did not, that the lake was gone. But when I went up there, I was expecting to do an early April swim through the lake. I was pleasantly surprised to find it gone. It was rather interesting while it lasted, but you could tell that the rock slide that caused it had ceased its slide without injuring anyone and the creek had breached the dam through its own power rather than with a excavator clearing the way. Just like it was intended to.

Truth is, there are few places left where that is allowed to happen. Thank goodness for the Right Fork. As I continued further up canyon, I saw signs of beaver activity and very recent. The beaver had taken out cottonwood after cottonwood. I did not recall ever seeing beaver activity in this canyon before. Thank goodness for the Right Fork. Then I took a turn and went up a seldom seen off shoot of the normal drainage. I was determined to make it to the back of the canyon to see what was marked as falls on the map. If it is marked as falls, there must be a pretty dramatic fall. I had been up this canyon before but was thwarted by a slippery pour-off.

This time I got above this pour-off by carefully navigating up the right side of the wall. Jackpot! The rest of this canyon was fantastic with other side drainages still waiting to be explored. I had to scramble around some larger impassible pour-offs that required a fair bit of bushwhacking and effort. Eventually, though, I came out in a place where I could access these falls. It was a ton of effort toward the end, something that I would not choose to replicate. When I got there, the pay-off was not all that I was hoping that it would be, but it was still rewarding.
I would compare it to the Emerald Pools, but in a place that few if any had ever been to. There were no signs of human visitation up there. On the way back down, I was studying the rocks closely and they seemed very similar to the rocks where the dinosaur tracks in the Subway were. I looked really closely and sure enough, I discovered a dinosaur track.
 This is one of those discoveries as a kid you dream of. So now I know where a dino track is that no one else in the world has ever seen. I was so excited. As I went down, I admired the rocks and found a window in one of the formations. As I exited my secret canyon, the South Guardian Angel loomed over me. I followed the creek the rest of the way downstream, so excited to share my finds with other Park employees and my family. Some were excited, some didn't care, but truly the Right Fork has to be appreciated for how it has been allowed to remain wild!