We arrived at the parking lot to mostly cloudy skies and a very light rain. It was fairly cool, which was fine by me. I much prefer cool temperatures to the heat which occurs later in the summer. I think the cool temperatures were the reason I was able to get the picture of the Indra Swallowtail butterfly. I suspect that it got too cold for flying and as a result it was more or less stuck on the ground where I could easily take its picture.

The shortest way down into the canyon (well not the shortest but the shortest way to reasonably walk) involves walking a little ways up the canyon to a place where you can sneak down a crack in the canyon wall to get to the river level above the falls in the canyon. From here it is easy to walk out and look down the falls. If you so desire (and we did) it is not difficult to walk along a ledge which is at the level of the river above the falls to a place where you can scramble down to the level of the river below the falls. There is some brush (including poison ivy) along the way, but it was still early enough in the year that it was not difficult to avoid. The rocks and dirt/mud were a little bit slippery due to the rain, but that did not cause us much trouble either.

Once down below the falls, there was not a whole lot to do except take a picture or two and then climb back out. When I have been down before, I saw people fishing (and catching things) in the pool below the falls. I also know of others who had been able to cross the river without much trouble and explore the other side. However, that was in the fall when the water level was much lower.

For some reason Leslie is really not a fan of snakes and she commented a number of times on the way down that the weather must be cold enough that the snakes would all be hiding. Having never seen a rattlesnake, I thought it would be kind of fun to see one, but my interest was definitely not shared by Leslie. After she made it down the canyon and back out again with no snakes sighted, she felt that it would be a good commemoration to take a picture of the rattlesnake area sign. I thought that was pretty funny, so I took a picture of her taking a picture.