Date: 11/27/2020 – Distance: 2.6 mi – Elapsed Time: 1.75 hr – Ascent: 312 ft – Descent: 276 ft – Difficulty: Medium
After hiking at the nearby Kendall Lake Area I drove over to the Ritchie Ledges Area for a beautiful hike around the cliffs. I have been here before, but this place is so beautiful, I had to come back. I parked at the top this time, at the Ledges Shelter parking area which is accessible from Truxell Road, just east of the Kendall Lake Shelter parking area.
Ledges Overlook.
Same place, different angle.
And as close as I get to the edge. It’s a 60ft drop.
Looks like it’s balancing there.
Overlook from the side. You can see a trail down below. I’m going there.
The trail to the bottom is to the left of the overlook.
It’s a little scary down below.
Here’s that balancing rock from below.
The trail goes all the way around on the bottom.
Looking up at the overlook.
The rock here is known as Sharon Conglomerate. It’s sandstone with layers of these quarts pebbles. 200 million years ago it was a beach.
The Yellow Birch grows right on the rock.
Love the greens of the moss and the oranges of the iron in the sandstone.
The lichens also add some different color shades.
The rocks even start too look alive at times.
And you can get right up to them.
And the cliffs go on and on.
Water gets into the pores of the sandstone, and when it freezes, it erodes the rock.
Called honeycomb weathering.
Trail continues to the right, however this takes you to the Octagon Shelter parking.
We’ll keep going straight. Right takes you back to the top.
Some of the rocks hang out over the trail.
The patterns are cool too.
The evergreen ferns also add year round color.
Like the birches, the hemlocks also grow right on the rocks.
Trail to Happy Days Lodge to the north.
This kiosk describes how the trail builders used natural materials to keep with the surroundings.
This staircase is a work of art.
It looks like it’s balancing there.
And this one is leaning. You can get behind this one.
Another access point to the passage behind the leaning rocks.
See the kids back there?
This passage is larger.
Look at the Hemlock tree on the right.
Amazing agility.
Coming up on Icebox Cave.
The cave is blocked to protect the bats which live inside.
The bats are in danger from a fungal spore which is transmitted on human clothes.
I had to wait for the kids to get off this rock in front of the cave. Don’t climb on the rocks.
The cliffs wind down on the southeast corner. I took a right here back to the top.
Here’s the trail up.
On top it’s flat.
This is the crevice behind the leaning rocks from above.
Left goes to the picnic and parking, right leads to the artistic stairs, and straight takes you to the west ledges.
This sign explains why you shouldn’t climb on the rocks.
The trail follows the rim along the west side.
Be very careful along here.
It’s a long way down.
You can just see the trail below.
The views are great all along this rim.
Watch your footing here.
Coming back upon the overlook.
One more shot of the overlook from far back.
This is the large flat area on top. The parking lot can be seen to the right.
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