Last weekend one of my Mother's Day requests was to go hiking. We've been in a bit of a hiking lull these past few months for a few reasons: a heavy toddler, house projects and bad weather.
Weather: I'm not sure what is going on, but most of March and April we've had gorgeous weeks and horrible weekends. This has delayed our yard project getting done and prevented us for hitting the trails.
Heavy Toddler: We love going hiking and so does our son, but he's a hefty 30-35lbs and doesn't last too long. We've gotten lucky and he generally hikes 1-2 miles, but if we ever wanted to get out to do something longer my poor husband would have to haul him and our pack is very uncomfortable for him and makes getting out unenjoyable.
House Projects: We bought a project house and knew going in to it that there would be lots of work, with most of it happening on the weekends. Well we planned out to do our yard this year and have it done in April, but thanks to mother nature we are still finishing up the final details.
So now the hike. We searched for something nearby and with a waterfall because my 2 year old always asks to go hiking to a waterfall. Thankfully this trail was 40 minutes from our front door. The more popular hike starts from the lower trailhead but we continued on and parked at the upper trailhead. Another bonus of starting at the upper trailhead is you have two hiking options to the falls, a short .5 mile hike or a 3 mile loop. The lower trailhead is a 4 mile out and back hike.
So after parking (and enjoying one more donut, another Mother's Day treat) we hit the trail!
You hike on the trail down hill for a bit with the creek on your right and then come to an opening where it looks like some dispersed camping sights are available. Just after that is the first {junction} where you will keep left and head uphill slightly. There is a sign labeled {trail}.The next junction has more signs indicating Falls to the right or the Cliff Loop Trail to the left. My toddler did well and hike about a mile before he requested a ride on daddy's back. I think he was also slightly jealous his little brother got to ride.
Once the toddler started riding we took the opportunity to go a little faster. This trail was beautiful and eventually broke in to a wooded area. Just following the footsteps of my husband Reid, we at one point wondered if we were still on the trail. But you eventually break out of the woods a bit and head down back towards the creek. You'll hook up with the Lower Falls trail for a little while and start the trek uphill and towards the falls. Apparently there was a smaller trail you could take to the base of the falls, but I did not notice it (Reid only told me after we "climbed" to the top). At {the top} of the falls they are a little hard to see. We stopped for a bit to take a few pictures and then continued on and hooked back up to the junction of the Cliff Loop and falls marker shortly after we left the falls.
I can only imagine this trail is pretty popular in the latter spring/summer months, but it was calm and peaceful when we went and had just the right amount of puddles for our toddler to splash and jump in. A perfect family-friendly trail!
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