Bulge Hole Ecological Area: waterfalls, rainbows, and beautiful creeks

It had been raining and raining that week, so we decided to go to Bulge Hole EA.  It has been referred to as the "valley of many waterfalls" in the Shawnee, so we figured we'd find a few with the recent rains.  It has been 24-36 hours since the last rain, so the flow was a bit less than anticipated, but most of the falls were still running.

We didn't even make it far off the old forest road trail before we found little cascades and an awesome formation where water was running across the bedrock, carving braided channels throughout.  It was the first time that we had ever really seen water running like this over bedrock since the bedrock in this region is often only exposed atop bluffs, where water doesn't collect much.  The combination of mosses, lichens, rock, and water made for an especially textured landscape.

We crossed the "creek" and started to parallel the valley north on the west side, stopping for some spring beauty flowers and interesting mushrooms.

We followed the unofficial trail until it did some switchbacks down into the creek valley.  This valley was really neat because the bluffs were opposing each other in fairly close proximity -- a few hundred yards at most -- so you really felt like you were "in it".  We headed south to the namesake Bulge Hole, a huge rock shelter that went way, way back.  What was really intriguing was standing under it and hearing water running over the top.

We then headed north along the creek that runs up the middle of the valley.

We heard the characteristic splashing sound of another waterfall to our east, so we stopped to see this one.

Lucy was sound asleep, so we carried on to the north.

Lucy was still asleep, but it had been a very long time since her last feeding, and we were also hungry, so we made the call to wake her at the next waterfall for a feeding.  Heavens knows we wouldn't dare feed here anywhere other than a water feature during a hike!

After Lucy ate her lunch, I took her down close to the waterfall, letting the water lightly splash her for a second.  Then we sat on the rocks for burping and she was clearly interested in the sparkling water.  It was like a million tiny lamps!

After lunch, we still had some time left, so cut west across the creek and up a tributary to our final waterfall for the day.  Interestingly enough, it was the most scenic of them all!  The creek leading up to it was also gorgeously lit on our walk there.

The top of this fall looked really cool from down below, but we knew we didn't have time to loop around the bluffs to see it.  We took a shortcut back to the trail, stopping while I ran back to this fall to get my hiking pole (and losing a little tripod during the jog), and then carried back to the first spot where we had stopped with the bedrock for a few more pictures before heading home.