Secret Falls
This is another one of those waterfalls I would never have known existed if not for some very nice person informing me about it. I am calling this one Granite Lake Falls, and it is a beauty, 33 ft. high. The stream is part of the outlet stream from Granite Lake, which dumps into Silver Lake. The other part comes from high up in the mountains at Summit Meadow Lake. In the spring, when the streams are flowing, this waterfall rocks. But how would one ever know this waterfall exists?
From study of Google Earth and topo maps, there is no indication whatsoever of a waterfall in this area. There doesn’t even seem to be any outlet to Granite Lake. Not to mention, the topography just does not look steep enough. “Surprise, surprise!” says God. There is indeed a waterfall, and a pretty good one at that. I probably would never have gone up here had I not known there was a waterfall. But I did not know exactly where it was, and I wasn’t expecting it at this particular point along the trail. I was guessing it would be further up towards Granite Lake, and I also wasn’t expecting such a nice one and such a big one (I was thinking it would be more around 20 ft. or less).
So on Sunday morning, I got up at 3:30AM and headed out to Silver Lake. It is a very short hike from Silver Lake up to the waterfall, and I arrived at the falls about sunrise. Needless to say, I was very happy to find this fabulous falls. I carefully made my way down from the top of the falls to the base (it was actually much harder going back up). There was quite a lot of mist at the bottom of the falls, but moving downstream a bit, I found this cool spot to photograph. It was a beautiful morning.
I continued up another 10 minutes to Granite Lake, but I arrived at the lake about 15 minutes too late as the sun was already up above the mountains. I must have awoke all the mosquitoes there, and I think they were not very happy about it. Or should I say, they were very happy. Breakfast! I quickly took a photo of the lake, then headed back down the trail, away from the mosquitoes, and still had plenty of time to make it to church.
2 Comments