Mary Jane Falls - 6/4/11

We had forty- five hikers on the Mary Jane Falls Trail today. New members, old members and everyone in between. In fact, Howard the Great was even on the trail today. It sure was nice seeing him.

We converged on the already full parking lot nestled in Upper Kyle Canyon off of Echo Drive. We split into two groups and began our 900 foot elevation climb. Soon, we were spread all over the hill from trailhead to falls.

There were a lot of hikers on the trail today. Families, dogs, babies in papooses and regular hikers. When we arrived at the falls area, we were met with water spraying from the falls in the wind. A lot of water came over the cliffs in three different flows. Below each flow sat a mound of snow/ ice as seen in the photo to the right.



Some of us took our pilgrimage over to the large cave. The photo at the top of this entry shows the view from inside the cave which has been used as a campsite by many. The view is tremendous. Then, some of us simply sat on a log at the foot of the falls and took in a nice long break with the sound of falling water filling the air.

On the way back down the trail, we could see the cave through the trees. We also could see Big Falls across the way. It seems to be pouring quite a large amount of water into a bed of icy snow. If you look closely at the photo to the left, you can see Big Falls at the bottom center. The hike was finished by noon with all forty- five accounted for.