Arrived at the park at 9 AM. Our host had given us some secret info regarding a third and unpublished gate. This one has free parking but does not open till 9. All other gates open at 7. We got our tickets and boarded one of the boats that traverses the lake to the trail that has waterfalls.
Electric boats
The boats are electric and very quiet sans all the tourists on board. Next to Devin is a man taking video of the whole boat ride on his iPad. Inside I feel sorry for the person who he will make watch this when he returns home.
Landing we were presented with two trails. Left and right. Our hostess advised us to go left and despite Devin’s tendency to follow the hoards I was able to make a compelling case to go right. We were immediately on the elevated paths made of wood and viewing waterfalls.
Bluish-green water
The water is a terrific shade of blueish-green. I made a remark about it resembling a 2001 flushes color and I got a special look from Devin. If it had been a hike with Mary I might have received a “shut up Chris”.
The park is super popular with locals and foreigners alike. There were moments where the paths were too crowded to move.
At the top of the waterfall/lake system there was a restaurant. We picked up some ice cream. Mine had flashy packaging but didn’t live up to the hype.
In total we hiked about 8 – 9 miles. Devin’s GPS watch recorded 8 miles before it died but some of that was when we were sitting on the boat. Since we were moving so slow it wasn’t that bad.
We finished the day at the biggest waterfall in the park. There were some stairs that led to the top. We took these since we figured it would be quite the climb and out of bounds for most of the tourists stamina.
At the top we were rewarded with a great view of the waterfall and surrounding area.
We didn’t have to climb back down because we found a trail that led us back to our car. There were some excellent overlooks on the trail.
