A New Favorite Hike - The Santa Clara Waterfalls - Part 1

The owners of the feed store told me about a short trail to a waterfall where I could walk the dogs. It sounded almost too good to be true, but I was excited about it and drove the dogs there the next day. It was located exactly where they'd said, only 16 miles from my door. I parked my car and let the dogs out to run:

The trail was easy to walk and took us through a beautiful forest of Balsam Fir, Hemlock and Mountain Maple:

The ground beneath the trees was covered with moss and Canada Mayflowers:

The dogs were wild with excitement to be out on another adventure, and they stopped to sniff every smell along the way. At other times, they ran too far ahead and I had to holler at them:

Just as it had been described to me, we soon saw a smaller, less used trail take off to the right. We followed it:

A fallen tree was covered with small, orange fungi which looked like upside down mushrooms. I stepped over it but forgot to watch Seamus, who has always had difficulty with such obstacles. He either managed to step over it or walked around:

We took several forays into the trees (mostly Balsams), just to see what we could see:

One thing we saw was lots of Partridgeberry:

We heard the roaring water before we could see it. The dogs ran ahead and I again called them back. But soon we all arrived at the falls:

There were flattish rocks at the base of the falls, and Fergus and Daphne rushed out onto them. I followed cautiously because I am rather clumsy in my leg braces:

The falls were not high, but they were nonetheless dramatic and magnificent. The dogs found them lots of fun to explore:

We all climbed up on a higher rock and I marveled at the beauty of the St. Regis River (east branch):

Then the little dogs clambered down to the water's edge again for a drink of pure water and to investigate. Seamus and I, both of us awkward and prone to falling, stayed up on the flat rock where we'd be safe. But we had just arrived and there was much more to see. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: