Arrived at trail-head about 11:00. Parked cars were starting to spill out onto the paved road. Gravel road up to Denny creek trail head has pot-holes. The trail to franklin falls itself was good. My five and three year old had no problem navigating the trail. Some mud, but not much. The biggest obsticle was a blowdown on the rock ledge/path down to the falls. My wife and I had to remove our packs to fit under it.

We were able to make it to the trailhead, but there is still very limited parking due to snow all around. The trail is mostly snow covered with some bare spots. Since we have never hiked the trail before it was hard to know if the footsteps we were following were the actual path of the trail or not, but if they were there is a washout area where you must get your feet wet to cross the "creek". There were multiple blowdowns, most were passable by even my husband with the 2 year old on his back except the last one on the rock ledge/path down to the falls. There was no way for him to fit under or go over as it is at the narrowest part of the path and down was a hefty drop off. Our 6 year old had no problem going under, but I was a tight squeeze. The falls themselves were very powerful and it would be a wonderful place on a hot day. It is clear that some trail mantaince will need to be done once the snow melts to clear the trail, but for a short hike (our GPS said 2.4 round trip) it was a good workout over the snow. oh yeah, we ran across some animail tracks, can anyone identify them? We know they are not bear.

We didn't actually make it to the trailhead. We wanted a nice short hike with our baby in the sunshine today. That was not to be. The road to the trailhead is covered in snow starting a mile before the Denny Creek Campground. We walked up the road a ways. The snow is still at least a foot deep. Other hikers coming down said the trail proper is treacherous - lots of snow and mud.

It was beautiful and a great first trip for my 5 year old son

Denny Creek Campground and the Franklin Falls Trail were a perfect place for the two novice snowshoers and Maisie the Snow Dog. The Denny Creek Rd was plowed with a hard-packed snow surface to the last house with room to turn around and for cars to park parallel to the roadway. Our front wheel drive station wagon had no problem, although we saw several who were clueless about driving on snow. (Don't decide to put chains on while stopped on the middle of a hill blocking all traffic) Others had broken the trail before us and we enjoyed the winter wonderland of snow tasseled trees, lacy iced branches, and the icy openings above the swift-flowing creek. We did not go all the way to Franklin Falls, but talked to other snowshoers who had. Be cautious of a few steep spots and avoid the creek bed where the snow cover may hide the creek below.