We took the car and tried to offroad it until the disapproving looks were too much to bear. You can only offroad a civic so far. The explanation of "that's why it's made of metal," after two large bumps wore thin, I pulled over and we hoofed it. Just for fun we tried coming in from Gold Creek but the waterfall at the very end was sketchy. I scoped it and told her "90% chance I can do it, 70% you can." Her fear of heights said the 90% was a bad enough number but to my astonishment, she said, why don't we just go straight up this chute here and then down the other side to bypass the waterfall. That was an interesting route for sure. Crumbles and cacti but we made it to the water. So that was all the preadventure that she thought was "so much fun." So yeah, I'm happy :)
Anyway, we walked, waded, swam and tubed 1.5mi in until hanging out for a while, then returning. There was no way to backtrack our steps but we knew that already. We exited near the cable car and rounded the hill back to the car. Time to put a lift on it.
IMG_9496 by Skatchkins, on Flickr
IMG_9501 by Skatchkins, on Flickr
IMG_9511 by Skatchkins, on Flickr
IMG_9524 by Skatchkins, on Flickr
IMG_9527 by Skatchkins, on Flickr
The "fun" route
tracks by Skatchkins, on Flickr