Date: 08/30/2019 – Distance: 3.8 mi – Elapsed Time: 2.25 hrs – Ascent: 535 ft – Descent: 538 ft – Difficulty: Hard
After leaving Rock House, I headed a short few miles away up SR 374/180 to Cantwell Cliffs. There is a Rim Trail (marked in red blazes) which has an upper and lower portion along the amazing cliffs, and a Gorge Trail (marked in yellow) which descends into the valley and does a lollipop loop back.
I began by entering the trail, which is actually the Rim Trail first. There are some lengthy stairs leading up to the first cliff.
At the first cliff, there is a fork to the left and right. Right goes along the upper rim and left descends some stairs and goes along the lower rim at the base of the cliffs. The Gorge Trail goes off to the left at the base of these stairs to the left. These stairs are understandably known as The Squeeze.
I decided to take the upper Rim Trail first.
Looking down from the upper rim, you can see the lower rim below.
There is an intersecting trail (still part of the Rim Trail) which shortcuts to the lower Rim Trail. I decided to continue because I knew the trail would circle back around.
There’s a spot where you can see a large cave below and if you look close enough the lower Rim Trail is down there too.
You cross a neat stone bridge over a small creek. This creek flows over the cliff to the big cave below. These falls are called Cantwell Falls.
I came to a small log shelter where you can sit and enjoy the scene (if you can avoid the wasps). In front of the shelter, there is a walled overlook.
Soon the trail begins to descend and starts wrapping back around to the lower Rim Trail.
The cliffs start getting really cool on the lower Rim Trail.
You come to some more stairs which are struggling to hold on to the cliff.
The lower trail keeps descending until you round a corner and there is the big cave. The falls which created this recess cave are called Cantwell Falls. There was just a trickle today coming over the cliff above.
Just before climbing some stairs on the far side of the cave, the trail goes off to the right toward the Gorge Trail. I decided to continue along this amazing cliff.
You come to some stairs on the left which go back up to the upper Rim Trail. We saw these before where I said it was a shortcut.
The lower Rim Trail continues along the cliff.
You come to another waterfall which is right in the crag of a 90 degree turn in the cliff. In several thousand years, this may be another recess cave.
You come to another set of stairs, wooden this time which seem to disappear between the cliff gap. These will take you back to the top of the Rim Trail and back home, but I wanted to do the Gorge Trail as well, which goes off to the right down into the valley shortly past these stairs.
The Gorge Trail descends rather quickly down stairs to the valley floor and follows a creek.
You come to two intersections on the Gorge Trail. The first takes you back to Cantwell Falls at the cave on the Rim Trail. The second is this waypoint marker F. It’s the split in the lollipop which will eventually circle back around.
There isn’t much else to see on the Gorge Trail. It loops around and comes back to Waypoint F, and you must head back to it’s trailhead and take the Rim Trail again to get back to the parking lot.
When you arrive back at the Rim Trail at the cliffs, there is another cave with a third waterfall. It’s pretty big as well.
From the cave, the Rim Trail turns left into the cliff and goes through a section called The Squeeze. This is a narrow crag in the cliff where they have built stairs which climb back to the top of the rim.
From the top of The Squeeze, I returned up the hill to the top where the parking lot is. This is a fantastic park.