Stanley Falls


April 23, 2011

In mid afternoon on a Saturday, my small adventuring party and I managed to find these waterfalls. I say this because unlike a great deal of waterfalls in the Rockies, this waterfall is not marked with a sign at the road, or a rail alongside the trail. However, on this waterfalling day in late April the winter has still not retreated from the ground, and when going out to look for waterfalls in the winter it can be a gamble. Sometimes the frozen falls can be covered in snow which makes for a worse picture, and a wasted trip.

On this day, the frozen falls were perfect, and beautiful. The weather has been jumping from warm to cold the past couple months, which aided the formation of these frozen falls. The waterfall was cocooned in a frozen sheen of ice, and the water was gushing behind this thin layered shell. Any day the frozen falls will soon fully melt away an make for a summer time experience. As the weather hopefully warms up in the coming days, this glacier fed water will soon send water down below to the dry riverbed.

On the way to the falls the walk in the winter is slightly rigorous. From the lack of visible signs, markings, or guard rails from the edge it seems as though these hiking conditions aren't much more simple during the summer. However the hike isn't more than a 2-3 kilometer hike from the roadside parking location. Also as these waterfalls aren't in a canyon formation, your able to walk alongside the river, which is a marvelous sight all in itself.

It's this river that will in days to come be fully melted which will allow for Stanley falls to feed water all the way down to the parking lot and alongside the road which goes on some distance beyond where you've parked.
All these reasons makes me believe this is definitely a sight to see during the summer. Which is why I'll do my best to find the time to return to this location in another couple months to show how the location has changed.

No comments:

Post a Comment