Some of my friends and I decided we wanted to go hiking again this Friday night. My friend Jae said she was going to choose the hike this time. Our last hike, Rattlesnake Gulch, was chosen by our friend Jon and although it was fun but definitely took a lot of work. She chose a hike she was pretty familiar with, Rocky Mouth Falls. This hike is listed as being extremely easy and short. Yes this is true. If you stop at the bottom of the waterfall. After checking out the waterfall at the bottom we decided it'd be fun to go up to the top. Only we had no clue what it was going to be like, well except Jae. Turns out it is not a hike up to the top, it is a rock climb. Yes you have to grab nature made handholds and pull yourself up. There were even some points when we had to jump and toss your leg up to a higher ledge. If you know anything about me you know I'm not an outdoorsy person. I do not like getting dirty and honestly I have never been rock climbing other than the wall at REI when I was a child. I was not prepared mentally, physically, and I wasn't not wearing appropriate attire for such a situation. I didn't even have a water bottle. Here I am on the side of rock, holding on with my weak sissy arms, looking out over the valley knowing I'm way high up, and I have dry mouth with no water. There were more than a billion times I asked Jae if we could go back down because it just wasn't worth my life. Nope she is a monkey with no fear and up we went. Jon of course had to protect his manliness and ensure the safety of us girls. I on the other hand have no desire to do this and my anxiety is at max level. However I pressed on and managed to make it to the top of the waterfall. Go me!!! After playing around at the top for a bit we headed back down. My instructions in most places were "slide down the rock and let your leg stop you at this point." Oh great! I'm just going to slide down the mountain side and hope my foot lands in just the right spot to stop the pulling force of gravity. Um, this is terrifying. Despite all the fear and hesitancy I managed to get to the top then safely get back down to the bottom. I had soooooooo much fun! I loved it. I'm not sure I'd do it again since it was absolutely frightening, but I enjoyed myself. Today I ache just about everywhere. There's muscles I wasn't even aware of throbbing away. Oh well, it was worth it!

Here's some pics:

A little alcove on the path to the waterfall

The bottom of the falls

The water trickling down the rocks

A shot taken midway through our rock climb

Remember that roundish rock? Yeah we're standing above it. Jae and Jon decided to climb down closer to the top of the falls.