I planned on hitting the trail right around 8 AM. That’s when it’s been getting light. This morning I opened the door and it was already light. What? The forecast was mostly cloudy, but the sky looked fairly clear. There was just a slight haze.

Today’s main hike was the Rogue Gorge Trail. I parked at Natural Bridge and headed out. The trail wasn’t close to the river so at one point I decided to head over that way. Great choice. The river in that area is flowing through a section of lava. I worked my way downstream and was soon at Natural Bridge. This is the first time that I’ve seen it from this side. I could say that I’ve now seen the entrance to the lava tube, but I couldn’t really see it. All I could see was a cauldron where the river enters it. Many of the pools of water in the lava were bubbling. That’s from the water pressure in the lava tube passing through tiny cracks. I got a good look at the main blow hole.

By the time I was done taking pictures I was pretty much back where I started and over an hour had passed. So I went back to the trail and started over. I soon reached Natural Bridge Campground. It turned out that I had headed over to the river right before I reached the campground earlier. Now I was planning to continue, but it was very difficult. There were no signs, and I was now in a maze of campground social paths. Since there are two other places I can access this trail, I decided to go back to my car and drive over to the Rogue River Gorge.

The trail ended up having some good sections and some not quite as good, much like the segments of the Rogue River Trail that I had already been on. Well mostly it’s all good. Except that it looked as though someone had run stock on the trail. Some of it was pretty beat up with hoof prints and there were cow patties galore.

Since it’s been warmer I decided to head to National Creek Falls. You may recall that I wasn’t able to get there last Friday because of snow. I was pleased to see that it’s all melted, and I was able to hike to the falls. The short trail switchbacks to the base of the falls, but the best view is from the other bank. Last time I walked over on a log. This time the logs were wetter. I got up on a couple and moved my feet around to see how slippery they were. I decided that there was a good chance that I was going to fall into the creek. So I wouldn’t be getting over to the other side to take pictures unless I could find a more suitable crossing downstream.

I did find something I thought might work, but the two log didn’t exactly reach a good crossing spot on the other side. One stopped just short of the bank, while the other ended in a bunch of branches. I figured maybe I could push the branches aside. I crossed only to find that wasn’t exactly going to be easy. There were a lot of branches. I could bend some but there were plenty right behind them. Plus I would have to deal with that while trying to walk on a mossy log. Well I could just jump to that spot right over there. Yes, that worked. Then I needed to use my poles to sort of vault over another small, but deep creek. I had done that at Zion last year so I knew it would work. So I did manage to get to the good view of National Creek Falls. I took one of my favorite pictures here in 2007, so it was nice to return. We’ll see how my current pictures turn out. I suppose it doesn’t matter much since I’m completely satisfied with the old version.

During our last stay at Prospect I had set a waypoint at Muir Creek Falls. Using my GPS lead me to the falls, but not the way I was expecting. I parked and walked a very short distance down a steep, rutted road. This didn’t seem right. Nor did the two buildings at the bottom. But I could hear the waterfall so I checked it out. It seems that I was now on the opposite side of the falls from my previous visit. I returned to my car, backtracked fifty feet, continued down the road I had previously been on and found a spot to park mostly off the very wide gravel road. This looked familiar. This short trek to the falls is off the beaten path, but I did find that there is now a small, but definite use trail. You still have to work your way through obstacles since it’s not a real trail, but it’s a little nicer being able to follow a path that others have used before. On my previous visit I had to take a few quick shots and beat a hasty retreat because of the hordes of mosquitoes. There wasn’t a single mosquito this time.

I finished the day finally getting a chance to shoot at the lava area above the Rogue River Gorge. Then I followed the trail the short distance upstream to Farewell Bend Campground. The trail wasn’t close to the water at that point so I cut over. It’s a nice area. I continued up to where I’m pretty sure the rapid water section ends. If it hadn’t been getting late I would have went a little farther just to make sure.

I covered a lot of ground today, which was very good since this is probably my last good weather day. The sun was rising this morning as I was shooting in the Natural Bridge area, but it soon got cloudy and stayed that way. I wanted to cover as much as I could since tomorrow is supposed to be rainy. In any case, I’ve now done most of the hikes I want in this area. There are a few left, but all leave something to be desired. From what I’ve seen, I’m not expecting the hike from River Bridge to Prospect to be anything amazing. The hike from Natural Bridge to Farewell Bend (and beyond) is just on the other side of the river from where I hiked today. From what I saw, I don’t see any particular reason to cover it from the other side. I had a possible hike along the Upper Rogue, but I don’t feel like doing that in bad weather. So that just leaves me with a few short catch up items. Depending on how the weather tomorrow I may find myself back at the motel very early.

It’s purely coincidence that A National Acrobat was later playing on my car stereo as I returned to Prospect. I’m happy to report that I didn’t perform any acrobatic moves while falling from a log into the water at National Creek Falls. I was very pleased to make it back across without any mishaps at all. That’s probably a good thing since I doubt that I’m cut out to be an acrobat.