Liz and I started to take shorter and shorter distances. The heights were getting to us, but we felt confident and strong. So we’d pause, gather ourselves, and then decide to go up “a little further,” picking some visual marker.
And then we’d repeat that a few times, and get higher and higher.
A lovely view from Portree (this is a row of houses, on a lower street – not actually of the downtown area).
We’d stopped here briefly, during our last visit to Scotland. But the weather was rough, and we didn’t walk all that far.
This time though – we were heading further, with more to traverse (some bridges, as well as a rock scramble).
I’m not great with heights, but I was mostly ok the whole time were on the summit. As I was looking out, I saw all this green… and it registered like a wide swath of rolling meadows and fields.
After staring a bit, it would slowly dawn on me that the green I was seeing was not grass… but in fact the actual tops of trees. And on suddenly realizing how high up we were, my knees then immediately turned to jelly.
The Dark Hollow Falls. Though there were a few other folks here also enjoying the view… Liz nad I were able to scramble up some rocks, and found ourselves a nice little nook alongside the waterfall.
We were close enough to enjoy things directly, but also enough out of the way that we didn’t feel like we were blocking others from photos, or from enjoying the view of the falls. It was as ideal spot.
I’ve lived in Chicago for a good long while now, ever since 2000. And in all this time, I’ve yet to make it over to Starved Rock. Until today.
After yesterday’s brief exposure to the West Fork Trail, Liz and I ventured off on our own early in the morning to hike the trail.