The next stop on our trip, Burney Falls State Park, was beautiful and hot.  It was the end of July, when temperatures easily reach over 100 degrees.  The water at Burney falls, however, is always in the cool mid-forty degree range, so it’s a very nice place to visit.

At the top of the falls we took some pictures, sweated, and said, “gaawwd, it’s hot!”, before we walked the winding trail that will take us 129 feet down to the base of the falls.  On the way down, we passed a couple working their way back up the trail.  They looked tired and hot.  The woman, nearly out of breath, said to us, “You’re going to hate life on the way back up”.   “Yes, wonderful”, we said to each other. “Now, not only can we hate life going up, but we can think about how much we’re going to hate life as we walk down too.”  Nevertheless, we kept going and noticed that the air was actually getting cooler. 

By the time we neared the bottom, it was at least 20 degrees cooler, and there was a cold spray of water coming off of the falls. “Ah, how wonderful”, we said, “We could live down here- if it weren’t for all the tourists”.  There were copious amounts of people at the base of the falls.  The water was too cold and too rough for swimming, so we all staked small spots of real estate on the slick rocks at the edge of the falls. 

We marveled at the beauty of it- the water, the rocks, the plants, even the little ducks bobbing up and down in the churning water- it was breathtaking.  We stayed until our feet were tired of balancing on the rocks, and we headed back up the trail.    About half way up we were passed by others on their way down and I thought about telling them how much they were going to hate this climb, but I was too out of breath to speak.  Also, it was worth it.