Punchbowl Falls, around two miles into that hike, is a very popular summer destination for cooling off. It always shows up in lists of top area "swimming holes," and as such tends to attract a high percentage of the most obnoxious sort of trail user. It is crowded. It is loud. Every year there's someone doing reckless things and getting themselves injured or killed. On the trail, it is downright scary. In high summer season I have encountered people toting in coolers, unleashed or aggressive dogs, young lovers wrapped around each other who will not go single file to allow people to pass safely--if you've seen pictures of the narrow stretches of trail carved into steep cliff sides, imagine the fun of trying to get around any of those. Hell, just on Monday when it was cool and overcast I had three girls shove past me on a narrow, slick cable section, rather than wait ten feet down the trail on a nice wide landing for me to get clear.jonhinson wrote:Can you elaborate on "party central"?
Most of that crowd doesn't venture much past punchbowl (although you can certainly hear them for some ways around), so at least there's that. I haven't found weekdays vs weekends to be as different as you'd hope in spots like that while schools are out, but if you want to go your best experience is probably if you get there as early as you can, and then hang around so you're headed out as late in the afternoon as you can, and not running head-on into the throngs on your way out. Flowing with lots of idiots on your way in may be annoying, but flowing against them on the way out could be really bad news.