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Rifle Falls State Park

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Since Amanda was off this weekend, I let her decide where we would be going on Saturday. She chose Rifle Falls State Park since neither of us had been there before and it’s a place we have both wanted to visit. We have driven past the park before, but always avoided it because it just seemed so busy. It’s a pretty small park located along Rifle Creek which flows down from the Flat Tops, but it has a nice waterfall, a few short hiking trails, and a small campground.

The weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms for much of the day, but they’ve been wrong before so we decided to go anyway. Besides, I was hoping for party cloudy skies to block the sun so I could get some longer exposures while not being completely overcast. I ended up getting exactly those conditions and the weather was actually great the whole time we were there. I think the forecast kept others away since we had the whole park to ourselves for almost two hours after we arrived. It was really nice!

If you don’t like photos of waterfalls, you should probably stop reading now since that’s all I took photos of while we were there 😉

This scene sure would have looked great later in the spring when everything is green or even in the fall when the colors are changing…but I worked with what I had.

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Rifle Creek Falls by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

A closer look at the bottom of the right waterfall.

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Bottom of the Right Falls by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

We hiked to the top of the falls for a view from above and down Rifle Creek.

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Rifle Creek by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Just the left waterfall alone.

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Left Fall by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Two of the three falls.

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Twin Falls by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Lower cascades of the middle waterfall.

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Lower Middle Fall by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

After spending some quality time photographing the Rifle Falls, we hiked the short trail along the creek past the campsites. I found these two small cascades that looked pretty cool.

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Tree Trunk Falls by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

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Log Falls by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

After leaving Rifle Falls we drove through Rifle Gap State Park on the way back to Rifle since we had never stopped here before either. The sky had become pretty overcast, so I didn’t take any photos while we were there. After that we made the short drive back home. It was a great way to spend half a day, and I think I’m going to have to return another time in the late spring or fall.

>> Rifle Falls State Park Photo Gallery

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