Slide Mountain and Racehorse Falls

Son Edward's girlfriend from Australia was here this summer and my wife and I took her and another friend (Edward had to work, poor chap) to Slide Mountain and Racehorse Falls.  These are some of the pictures we took, many of them my wife's, after a hard scramble up Slide Mountain and back down at the base of the mountain of Racehorse Creek and Falls.

Slide Mountain is the site of massive 2009 landslide that uncovered thousands of Eocene fossils, especially of leaves, ferns and palm fronds, and that scoured out the channel of Racehorse Creek below.  It is a wild scramble up to the top but well worth it for the view of the valley below and of the impressive collection of fossils that can be found there.

Racehorse Creek and Falls are below the slide and accessible from the same road that goes up to Slide Mountain.  On our way back down we stopped there and hiked to falls, which are named for a horse-head shaped hole to the left of the falls.  The water was low and we were able to cross the creek to the other side of the falls as well, something I had not done before.

While at  the falls the three ladies decided to go swimming (with all their clothing) in the pool at the falls' base.  It was a hot day and I am sure the water was refreshing but I took pictures instead of getting wet.  Some of the pictures of the falls include them.  After drying off a bit and hiking back to the car we went for a cup of coffee and back home.