Pleasant surprise: Caney Branch waterfall and creek


Micah and I were off on another hike with Lucy to give Laura a baby-free work day.  This time, I was eager to go to Cane Branch Falls in the Burden Falls Wilderness.  I had planned to take portraits of Laura there last year as part of her photo sessions, but we ran out of time.  I wanted to go visit it in the spring when there would surely be some water running.

We figured that the falls would be a quick hike as it wasn't far from the road and it was a small waterfall that wouldn't give us too many angles to photograph.  Honestly, we didn't have any high expectations for the hike and had planned to drive to some other waterfalls to fill the day.  We left our lunches in the truck and headed north on the trail for a while.  We were wrapped up in conversation and passed the turn off the trail to do down into the rocky glade, so decided to bushwhack over a hill to get there.  We ended up at the top of the glade on the north side but were able to find a safe path down into the valley.


We hit the stream at the bottom and could see the large rocks where the waterfall should be, but decided to head west along the stream instead, leaving the waterfall for our route back.  This was when it started to hit us that this area was way more interesting than we had suspected!

The stream had cascades on cascades on cascades.  And any small fork off of it offered options to find more cascades.  We decided to keep hiking to whatever we decided was "the end" of the out-hike and then photograph our way back.  Along the way, we passed through a slot canyon that further charmed us.  This place was enchanting!

We split up at a fork in the stream so that we wouldn't be photographing over each other's shoulders all day.  I hiked until I reached somewhat level ground and started shooting.  Lucy was an angel during the entire hike out and actually had some patience with me for a while this time when I stopped.






Meanwhile, Micah was off taking some pictures.  At least, until his camera battery died!

***Photos in the section below by Micah Miller***










***Photos in the section above by Micah Miller***

Lucy woke up and started getting fussy.  Up until this point, I had forgotten to put the chilly bag of milk inside my shirt to warm it. Plus, I wanted to get back to the fork where Micah and I split up before I fed her so that he would see me when he flowed back into the main stream, but I kept seeing "one more shot" along the way.  Finally, I whispered a promise to Lucy that I'd only take this one more picture and then we'd boogie back to the confluence.  Then I saw another shot calling my name, but I didn't want to start breaking promises to Lucy this early in life, so we carried on down the stream, found a nice spot to sit next to a cascade, and commenced the feeding.  Micah, Beulah, Chuska, and Moose all kept watch over Lucy to make sure she was okay.

***Photos in section below by Micah Miller***




***Photos in section above by Micah Miller

After the feeding, I loaded Lucy back up in her joey pouch and the whole posse headed back downriver.  Micah's camera battery had died, but he was patient with me stopping seemingly every twenty yards for another picture.  Each shot took a little extra time because I was experimenting with focus-stacking, which requires 2-6 photos per shot.










I was looking forward to making it back to the slot canyon.  The moss-and-lichen-covered walls were so interesting and complemented the reddish-orange rocks.  I hadn't ever seen something like this in the Shawnee and it is now among one of my favorite scenes in this National Forest.
Photo by Micah Miller





  


It was about this time that we did the usual "What time is it?!" upon looking at a phone.  It's crazy how the time flies on these trips every time!  I had an elaborate dinner to cook and needed to get home pretty soon, so we only stopped a few more times along the way to the waterfall.  Micah and I both agreed that we could spend another entire day in that valley.  Lucy didn't offer an opinion, only snoring.







Alas, Caney Branch Falls!  I had debated bringing waders (seems to be a theme this spring) and ultimately decided against it.  My first reaction at seeing the deep pool at the base of the falls was "I knew it!", but I quickly realized that there weren't many angles to shoot this waterfall, even with waders because it falls into a canyon.  I may try it again with waders, but I am quite happy with the shot I was able to get without them.





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