Warm spring day made for an excellent hike to Coal Creek Falls. Lots of others thought so too - busy trail traffic. Trail itself was clear and easy to walk. All in all a great first hike of the season for our family of 5.

A very rainy hike to see Coal Creek Falls in the Cougar Mountain Natural Area. We started from Red Town Trailhead. There was plenty of parking. We took Red Town trail to Cave Hole Trail to Coal Creek Falls trail where stopped on the bridge over the creek to admire the falls! They were rushing fast and beautiful. From the falls we continued on Coal Creek Falls Trail to Quarry Trail to Indian Trail and finally back to Red Town trail. We took a short detour at the junction of Indian Trail and Red Town trail to view the Meadow Restoration project. The is a relatively easy hike with a little bit of incline up Cave Hole Trail. Quarry trail seems steeper but luckily we came down the trail rather than up.

Out to celebrate the first day of spring on Cougar Mountain. Starting at the Red Town Center Trailhead, we headed up the Cave Hole Trail to the Coal Creek Falls Trail, then continued onto the Quarry trail to the Wildside Trail and back to the parking lot. This made for a wonderful little loop. The falls were full and beautiful and the trails were in very good condition. Some muddy spots to be expected after the rain, but only a couple, and one simple little blowdown to climb under or over depending on the length of your legs. There were a few out enjoying the trails on this partly sunny Thursday, but for the most part we had the trails to ourselves. Sometimes in the quest to go further and climb higher we forget about the simple splendor in our backyard. Cougar mountain is worth exploring and we hope to explore it some more.

Short on time I decided to plant my feet on Cougar Mountain for the first time. It turned out be be a wet day, but the rain and hail stopped just in time for me to snap some pictures of the falls before I had to jet. Overall it was a quick, but good time and I will be back for more exploring. -Ken

This day we were supposed to hike on the Old Suak River trail but rain and possible flooding conditions changed our idea as well as group size (from 12 to 3). We decided to do a Coal Creek Falls Loop from the Sky Country trail head on Cougar Mt. We lucked out with fairly dry conditions followed by hot beverages at Starbucks. The trail conditions are sloppy, muddy and wet. This did not prevent large numbers of trail runners from doing their thing nor the three of us (Peak Master Paul, Juggernaut Jeff, and Alpine Art) from getting out. Coal Creek is running 'high' and the falls were as pretty as I have seen them.