BlackAndGold
01-20-2010, 14:15
Camped at Panther Creek Falls on Sunday night, after about 24 hours of rain. Trail is about 3.5 miles from the parking lot to the falls, and about 4.5 miles from the falls to Yonah Dam. I backpacked to the falls and back out the next day, and did not go on the second half of the trail to Yonah.
While the trail is occassionally poorly marked, the terrain is such that it is hard to make a mistake without realizing it within about 10 paces. There were, however, a few difficulties on the trail:
(1) The last 0.3 miles or so to the falls features very slick footing when wet, on a trail that is at times quite narrow while hugging the side of a very steep slope. Just something to keep in mind if bringing children etc, make sure they know to be very careful.
(2) After rains, a couple of the stream crossings become nearly impossible to accomplish feet-dry, especially the last stream crossing before the falls.
The falls however was very beautiful. Although the campsites appeared to be heavily used, there were no crowds in the cold and damp weather, in fact I saw only 1 person on the trail on Sunday. No significant animal activity to report unfortunately.
While the trail is occassionally poorly marked, the terrain is such that it is hard to make a mistake without realizing it within about 10 paces. There were, however, a few difficulties on the trail:
(1) The last 0.3 miles or so to the falls features very slick footing when wet, on a trail that is at times quite narrow while hugging the side of a very steep slope. Just something to keep in mind if bringing children etc, make sure they know to be very careful.
(2) After rains, a couple of the stream crossings become nearly impossible to accomplish feet-dry, especially the last stream crossing before the falls.
The falls however was very beautiful. Although the campsites appeared to be heavily used, there were no crowds in the cold and damp weather, in fact I saw only 1 person on the trail on Sunday. No significant animal activity to report unfortunately.