Powerscourt Hike

 Powerscourt. Not only does it hold some of the most wonderful gardens, but its thousands of acres of land also holds the tallest waterfall in Ireland and some gorgeous hikes.

The Sugarloaf Mountain towered in the distance during our drive there.

 I really enjoyed this hike because we went through all kinds of forests and it felt a lot like wandering through the woods at home.

Of course, the first thing we saw after we climbed out of the coach was horses, and I immediately wished I was riding to the waterfall rather than walking.

Trees towered over us on either side of the main trail. The sun shone brilliantly overhead.

 We finally made it to the waterfall, which will receive its own post.

 The hike back was the real adventure. There wasn't really a trail in the direction that we decided to go back in, but Jon and Koert, more or less knew where they were going. I admit that this was my favorite part of the hike.

There were lots of creeks...

... and AMAZING trees!

 We came across this little troublesome spot (not that it troubled me any) Bailey (The dog on the other side) crossed the creek without hesitation, but Koert and Jon had to check it out to make sure it was "crossable." Bailey and I agree that it is fine.

 After that delay, we continued to admire the trees, and our group split in half. I chose to stay with the group heading into the woods. At this point, there wasn't any semblance of a path. We were just going by our sense of direction.

Unfortunately, the terrain was not following the same line of direction. We followed a ridge which led us further away from both our direction and the rest of the group. Eventually, we decided that we needed to cross the creek at the bottom of the ridge.

 We did so without too many casualties -- stumbling down a steep slope is more suited for mountain goats than humans. We then pranced across the trickle of the creek and clawed our way up the slope on the other side, meeting up with the rest of the group.

 We continued onto more amazing views.

 Ferns.

 Pine forests.

 We had to skip across slippery rocks to cross this river -- just like in the fairytales.

Isn't these woods just as magnificent as the Powerscourt gardens, if not more so? Make sure you check back in the next few days to get a closer look at the Powerscourt Waterfall itself.