...or the day we moved extremely slow.
Trail details
Distance: 3.3 miles
Elevation gain: 246 ft
Type: Out & back
Approx. time: 1h 12min
Dogs allowed: Yes
Permit required: No
This is certainly one of those trails where you want the timing to be just right. Why? Well, if you time it right you get to walk along and across a beautiful creek and even get to see a waterfall at the end of the hike. However, that also means getting up early to beat the crowds.
So we did just that. We made sure to arrive early on our hike day. The trailhead parking lot was already full (it is quite small though so that's not a surprise) and we ended up parking in the street, which was already filling up as well. However, we were still early enough to avoid most crowds on the way out to the waterfall.
We walked out on a beautiful trail in the valley with several creek crossings - no worries, there are bridges everywhere (see the one in the background).
There are several trails going off in other directions, so if you are up for it, you can easily extend this 3 mile hike. Sticking to the main trail we eventually got to some big rocks leading down to the creek. A lot of people just stayed there to hang out or turn around later. We wanted to keep going though, as we wanted to make it all the way to the waterfall.
The rest of the trail we stayed right next to the creek. The trail got more narrow and we had to scramble over some rocks, even cross without bridges a couple of times. Just before the waterfall, the valley opened up and the views were fantastic. We took so many pictures along the way that we ended up doubling the time of what the hike should haven taken us. We had a great time, climbed up to the top of the falls and even walked a bit past it.
Even though we loved the fact that the water was flowing, I can certainly imagine this trail to be beautiful without the flowing water as well.
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