Cave Falls

I always feel better when I go past this sign! Today when everyone else was at school, PMB and I drove out to Cave Falls. A tiny bit of Yellowstone is in Idaho, and if you follow Main Street through Ashton and eastward, you will come to Cave Falls Road. 19 miles later, it spits you out at Cave Falls, just inside Yellowstone. This is Cascade Corner, the part of the park that is largely inaccessible by motor vehicle, but which has many lovely (and long!) hikes to some very stunning waterfalls. This one, at the trail head, involves zero hiking, which is good, since we had only a little time once we got there and also, I don't like hiking in grizzly backcountry with only a 4YO to help scare them off. (Yes, I still brought bear spray, though.) But I think we'll come back with everyone and take the 3 mile round trip hike to Bechler Falls sometime soon.

If you do this, the road starts out paved and then is unpaved (but very, very smooth for a gravel road! Or maybe that's because the graders were out today) for quite a stretch in the middle, before suddenly it's paved again. So it's not like Flagg Ranch Road. But do be aware that cows are wandering loose across the road. In Idaho, livestock always has the right of way!

It's pretty flat out there, with forest interspersed with meadow, and I kept having the feeling that I'd come around the corner and find an old Celtic Ringwall, or maybe a German ruin from the 1600s, or at the very least a medieval quarry. In fact, this spot here looks EXACTLY like where we did encounter a quarry in Germany:



There was plenty of fall going on:







Here's the Fall River: Classic Yellowstone, don't you think?





And three views of Cave Falls itself. There used to be a cave underneath, but it collapsed, hence the name.







It was so nice to get out of town! Even if the skies are STILL glommed over with smoke. Usually you have a stunning view of the Tetons from Ashton, but today you couldn't see them AT ALL. It was like driving through flat farming country, Illinois or something. Hopefully the fires stop soon, and we get our air--and our views!--back.