We were greeted to a small covering of snow in the car park and wondered if we would make it in all the way. Turned out to be a very long and slippery day, especially all the downhill on the way back with the snow and lots of snow melt running everywhere.
The falls looked great with all the snow around and icicles at the bottom. The snow depth was around knee deep at the falls base and no more than about ankle deep along most of the track. Places on the track had no snow at all where the sun had melted it. Lots of falling snow out of the tree canopy as it melted in the sun. It snowed for about 20 minutes while at the falls and a few squally rain showers over the day. Took us a total of 7 hours today due to too many photo stops on the way in and the snow making progress a bit slower than normal and we arrived back at the car park just on dusk.
The track is easy to follow with with a few short steep bits and a pretty much constant grade for the last 3/4 of the track. One section was a bit hard to follow as all the trees were covering the track with the snow load on them but extensive tree markers would make it difficult for anybody to get lost on this walk. You will find yourself saying 'are we there yet!' as it seems to go on a bit. You come over a saddle only to find a couple more to cross as the falls are a lot further up the valley that you first thought.
If you get the chance to get the right conditions to get in here while it is cold and a bit of snow around it really is a magnificent walk. The snow covered amphitheatre around the falls was a very nice view. Good shoes are a must especially on the way out. The loop via split rock would have been impossible as the rock cairns over the saddle where invisible under the snow so we did a retrace.
- Meander Falls car park snow
- CarparkSnow.jpg (77.17 KiB) Viewed 3246 times
- Meander Falls track snow depth half way in
- SnowDepthHalfWayIn.jpg (48.93 KiB) Viewed 3246 times
- Meander Falls base ice formation
- Ice.jpg (76.43 KiB) Viewed 3246 times
