Monday, April 12, 2010

There are many short and easy hikes you can do right from the main roads - pretty easy for even those elderly or very out of shape people. However, the Gorge is known for world famous rock-climbing, so it attracts even the most "hard core" adventurer - and for good reason.

On Saturday, we did a handful of short, easy hikes from the road just to "see the sights", but we did choose one moderate hike - according to the trail guide. The hike was supposed to be 5 miles round trip. Well, let's get a few things straight - 5 miles means 6 miles. Moderate means starting at an elevation of 915 feet, climbing across a ridge, then down the ridge to 335 feet, across the floor of the Gorge and up another ridge to 922 feet, then down halfway from that ridge to climb out again to get back to the road. It took us about 3.5 hours to go 6 miles - we didn't break any speed records for sure, but I wouldn't exactly call our route "moderate".

Anyway, the photos were great and it was a great deal of fun, but be careful what you bite off if you go!