Denny Creek

He hiked Denny Creek after doing Franklin Falls, and the two make a great combo that a family can do in 2-3 hours. We passed several small patches of snow alongside the trail on our way up, and other than some muddy spots, the trail was in good shape.

We had hoped to maybe go down the natural rock slide, but this was clearly going to be impossible, once we saw the volume of water cascading down the falls below the natural slide. We watched nervously as several families cross the raging creek on a makeshift "bridge" composed of downed logs and rocks, and decided against doing so ourselves. At one point, and man walking a dog across the creek upstream from the bridge actually lost his balance, and hold of his dogs collar, as he reached the near side of the creek, and the thirty or so hikers gathered nearby held their breaths as the dog was quickly carried downstream towards the falls. Luckily, with the help of another hiker on shore, the dog was guided ashore, wet but otherwise unscathed.

This convinced us that this was a creek not to be trifled with, in its current condition. Indeed, signs at the trailhead had warned of the dangerous conditions, and any one of the small children who were crossing the creek could have had a misstep, and the situation would have turned tragic in an instance.

After this little adventure, we turned back and had an uneventful hike back to the trailhead, looking forward to returning in August when the water will have receded and sliding down the natural rock slide would be possible.