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Breakfast at Cedar Grove
It started getting quite hot in the morning, and we were out of the tent and off
on our way at 10am. Our first stop was Zumwalt Meadow.
Afterwards, we drove the short distance to Roaring River Falls. There were about
15-20 people here already. The falls are unique in that they don't fall straight
down. Well, they do, but before they do they swirl around inside a smooth rocky
formation, then fall straight down about 50 feet into a large pool. It has more
character than a lot of falls, but I'm not a big waterfall person.
Roaring River Falls
Roaring River Falls
We stayed at the falls for a bit before heading on to the Cedar Grove store, where
we bought more ice. Back at camp, we had a picnic lunch underneath the shade of
a tree. Direct sunlight was much too hot, and the tent was now like a sauna.
Mental note: unless it's freezing cold, try to put tent under as much shade as
possible.
We stopped by the store again to get something cold to drink. Some guy in line
asked me how to read my watch. I guess he didn't realize it was an altimeter --
he thought it was some kind of secret code or something. Whatever. I guess he
was just curious, but given my lack of sleep the previous night, I wasn't in the
mood to talk much.
We prepared for our next hike, starting from the Hotel Creek trailhead and going
up to the overlook, a 5 mile roundtrip. Unfortunately Jean wasn't taking the
heat very well and we decided to turn around after a short distance. In retrospect,
this is a hike best done in the early morning, when it's cool and there's less
atmospheric interference to ruin the great views.
After a dinner of chicken and mashed potatoes,
we again tried to settle down to sleep. This time, we encountered
some of the most incredibly rude people we've ever met. At about 11pm, the same
people who'd been up 'til 2:30am the previous night decided they needed to turn on
their truck's headlights. Which happened to shine directly onto our tent. It
was so bright inside our tent I could read. It was like this for 2 or 3 minutes
before Jean went outside to raise hell. They told her: "Don't worry about it."
Uh huh. They left it on for another minute before turning it off.
They didn't cause much trouble after that, but our neighbors on the other side,
4 single guys wasting time in a national park, decided to serenade us with bad
guitar playing.
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