After a short (1/2 mile) down hill hike we arrived at Turtle Falls which was impressive but not nearly as impressive as the what lay downstream. Rainbow Falls is by far one of the most impressive explosions of whitewater I've seen lately. Holy shit there was a lot of water blasting through the air below the falls. We'd brought vertical gear so that we could play in the falls but quickly decided that it was suicide to try to rappell in the falls. Nate soon spotted the ideal rig point. Nate posed for a few pictures and then captured some shots of Nate boulder hopping below the falls before he disappeared into the woods not to be seen again for over half an hour. We'd about given up on Nate when he finally popped out at the top of the cliff next to the falls. I photographed his descent and he urged us across. Tom and I crossed the stream below the falls. Almost immediately the right half of my body was soaked in a windy spray. We climbed over some boulders to a sheltered spot on the far side of the falls and I finally understood that Nate wanted us to climb the rope and then rappell back down rather than battling our way up the wooded slope as he had. There was a tricky spot to get to the rope. It was funny watching Tom try to cross it. I put on my vertical gear and then worked my way across the steep slope above pooled water. I only felt a knife twist in my inflamed knee once that day as I put pressure on the wrong spot worming around that slope trying not to slide into the pool. Once Tom yelled off rope it was my turn. The climb was somewhat arm intensive without a chest harness or croll but not really bad. I still made pretty good time. Tom and I rappelled back down and I de-rigged the re-belay and swung over to the falls to witness the blasting whitewater up close. Then I de-rigged and coiled the rope and we headed back upstream. Tom and I passed a couple lounging in the sun. We both wondered if the females attire had anything to do with Nate being so talkative when he caught up to them. Anyway, we stopped by Butt-buster falls on our way back to the car and drove to Whitewater Falls. To Whitewater Falls
Rainbow
The tourist view of Rainbow Falls.
Will bad-ass Nate be sucked into the roaring whitewater.
Rainbow
Guess not.
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Rainbow
Bad-ass Nate rappelling next the a roaring rampage of wetness.
Where'd Nate go?
Rainbow
Nate looks a little smaller in this picture...
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Rainbow
Or maybe that's just one big-ass waterfall!
Quoting Tom: "Holy Shit that's a good picture"
Rainbow
Nate ascends next to the frothing torrent risking being soaked to the bone every instant.
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