After I got in my tent at Emerald Lake, more deer came into my camp. One of them slept all night right outside my tent. I could hear it making noises in the night.
In the morning I went down to Stuart Fork Falls first thing. There is no good view of this waterfall. I suppose this is the reason I have never seen a good picture of it before. You can only see the lower tier, the main upper section is mostly hidden. I had hoped to find a better viewpoint. Bummer. However … I pondered the situation. Hmmmm …. Could I climb up the lower tier to reach the main drop? It looked possible. Was it stupid? No. It was a bit sketchy but I made it up and over to the bottom of the waterfall.
Stuart Fork Falls is much better than I expected it to be. It is a beautiful 30 ft. drop (not including the lower 16 ft. section). No one has ever done this before? It is completely worthwhile to get up close to it. Three awesome waterfalls on this trip. I was so happy.
I returned to camp to find more deer. However, they all ran away when I approached. This is what deer are supposed to do! Much unlike those thieves at Morris Meadow.
It is a long 13 mile hike from Emerald Lake back to my car but mostly downhill, thankfully. I started at 8AM and finished at 2:30PM. It was a stupendous backpacking trip into the Trinity Alps Wilderness. Trip number one is over. Trip number two is about to begin.
