Took a break from MRNP and headed out for some solitude at Goat Creek. While the directions were spot-on and the mileage about right, the gain of 400ft was way off. We clocked it at about 3,200 feet. Cathedral Falls is about 1 mile from the trailhead. At around 2 miles there is a fork in the trail. Left (straight? according to the WTA description) is the Tumwater trail. Goat Creek trail forks to the right and immediately starts climbing and doesn't stop until its endpoint at the junction with Goat Mountain Trail (217) and Vanson Peak Trail (217A) at an elevation of about 4,600 feet. On our trip we took the Tumwater trail for a short bit just to get a nice picture of the falls before heading back to the junction and up the Goat Creek trail. Cathedral Falls was just a trickle but was nice and cool. I guess we weren't thinking when we did this hike at probably the driest time of the year. Fortunately there were several other small falls along the hike. Wildflowers were out and some areas had some delicious berries as well. It was tempting to head over to Vanson peak at the end of the Goat Creek but by that time we were running low on energy and opted to try bagging that peak a different day. On our way in we saw two couples early on before Cathedral Falls and then not a soul until we passed a mountain biker on our way down from the junction with the Goat Mountain trail. Trail was in pretty good condition although there 5-6 blowdowns to cross or go around about 3 miles from the junction with the Tumwater trail. Even had a few peek-a-boo views of Rainier and Adams. A nice old growth forest hike that offered plenty of solitude and cool temperatures. We will sleep well tonight. GPS route posted below.

The work of the WTA on this trail and the road to the trailhead was apparent. Conditions to the trailhead were clear and easily accessible with my 4-door sedan. Just watch out and don't be a hotshot on the road! 

The trail itself was in great condition thanks to the folks who literally just cleared the trail. There were 4 downed trees which had fully uprooted or covered the trail. The uprooted trees required hikers to walk down in to the pit and back out and the downed trees were mostly cleared. One tree did require you to do the limbo! 

Other than that, it's a great hike to one of my favorite places in the world. Very easy hiking, a small hill on either end, but the reward is a wonderful waterfall with a cave behind that you can have a snack in.  

My friend scouted this trail out for us to do while camping near Ethel for the July 4th weekend and it was such a delightful treat! We ended up doing 4.4 miles RT with 560 feet of gain (basically to the junction with Tumwater which could use a new sign).  Like others have said, the trail is in great shape although there are a few places where it is uneven due to uprooted trees.

It was open views at .2 miles across the valley but the rest of the hike was a walk through sun dappled green forest. The water was running nicely and there were several cascades down over the trail that added to the anticipation of Cathedral Falls.  Poles were helpful when rockhopping.

Cathedral Falls was a silvery ribbon of water spilling over the cliff wall and we admired it from all angles.  Another mile or so we came to the junction with Tumwater and gazed down at Goat Creek.  We contemplated dropping down but my friend was still recovering from surgery so we decided this made a great turnaround point.

We only saw a handful of people on the trail, including a group that had gone further up for a backpacking trip at Vanson Lake.  They said it was worth the steep climb with heavy packs.

I was so impressed with this short hike, I actually took time to make a basic video which I haven't done in quite awhile, link below!

Joined WTA work party for two days (5/5-5/6) to clear the trail. It was raining all day. I think a regular car can still manage to go around the puddles (drive slow!) to get to the trailhead, but I was glad I drove 4WD. On the second day, the trail condition was more squishy and muddy, so I was glad to have thick rain gears and ankle top water-proof shoes.
I saw a massive upside-down tree trunk and several big holes in the middle. You need to step down and hike up the crater. The tree roots took a quite amount of soil with them. The size of fallen trees amazed me. I wondered if it was caused by the relatively dry summer last year. (I went to Burley mountain last September, and we noticed sandy soil and a little hard time finding stable footing while clearing logs. One of the ACLs the day expected more trees would fall next season on this steep slope.)
The Cathedral waterfall was the highlight of this hiking! We had lunch under the massive dome behind the waterfall to keep ourselves dry. One of my group members told me the water flow was less when she came in a different season. I highly recommend to check this out.
I did not go all way down, but if you hike here frequently, I hope you notice there are much fewer obstacles after WTA cleared multiple logs and fallen bushes.

If you drive through Packwood, stop by the Mountain Goat Cafe for homemade pastry and a hot drink in the morning. I bought a fresh hot berry muffin and latte. The sugary warm muffin and caffein gave me energy boost for the work party.

This poor trail really took a hit this winter!  In spite of WTA crews working on it, there are huge trees down, some on the trail, some have created large holes when they fell downhill, there are some rockslides, and quite a few smaller trees to crawl under or over, and we didn't even get to the trail division!  We also ran into snow just past the waterfall, making the narrow cliffy trails even more fun.  Usually a favorite spring trail, I think I will wait a bit before trying it again.  The road up from the lake is okay, some nice deep potholes, but the road itself is structurally sound.  Thank you to WTA for taking this on!