I was looking for an uncrowded trail to a rushing river or a big waterfall.  With no recent trip reports, Mohawk Falls sounded perfect.  I'd heard that people had trouble finding the trailhead, so I spent a bunch of time reading previous trip reports.  It wasn't too much trouble - the trailhead was 3.2 miles after turning onto Miller River Road.  You could probably fit 5 cars here.  Finding the start of the trail is a little tricky, but once you're on it the trail is not too hard to follow.  

The trail itself is overgrown in places, but navigation is not too difficult.  I let my 7 year old daughter lead the way, and there were only a couple of times when she paused and asked me which way to go.  There were some blowdowns and tricky areas, but my kids (7, 5, and 5) enjoyed them.  There was some devils club.  We wore pants and long sleeves and were fine.  The waterfall was flowing pretty well.

There are a couple of blowdowns right by the entrance of the mine.  This makes it hard to see, and hard to get to safely.  We took our time and made it there just fine.  The mine was interesting at first, and a little spooky.  You don't have to go far before it becomes repetitive and a little boring.

For our second hike, we intended to hike West Fork Miller River.  We missed the trailhead, expecting the jersey barriers to block the road we were traveling on.  That is not the case - Miller River Road keeps going.  The jersey barriers are on the side of the road, where you might park.  On the drive back out, I think we saw the trailhead.  It would have been 3.6 miles from the turn onto Miller River Road.

Instead, we ended up walking the road toward Lake Dorothy.  The road is closed 4 miles before the Lake Dorothy trailhead.  The view of the river from the bridge at the closure is nice.  The road-walk wasn't very scenic, but our kids really enjoyed it.  Somehow they had a ton of energy, and spent a good deal of the time running the old road.  They'd go fast, and then wait for us to catch up (often playing on the blowdowns).  They enjoyed climbing over or through (instead of just walking around them).  The road is wide and there is a lot of visibility, so we just let them run.  It was nice to have a little peace with my wife.

We thought we were looking for a side trail off of the road, so we explored whenever we saw a cairn or anything else that looked like a trail.  We ended up going down a steep trail toward the river.  It was very challenging, but we enjoyed the adventure.  

We walked the road until we got to the wash, and then turned around.

A lot of the road that we walked would be ok for a mountain bike, though it might be annoying to frequently dismount to go around or over the blowdowns.  If you decide to cross the wash and go all the way to Lake Dorothy, you'll want to bring some extra shoes for a shallow ford.

This was a fantastic hike for a time of social distancing. There's only space for one car to park at the trailhead, it's easy to get to, and the falls are absolutely spectacular.

We found the trailhead easily based on previous trip reports. There wasn't any pink tape behind the stump, but that didn't slow us down. The trail up to the falls was pretty straightforward until we got to the area with the mining artifacts. There were a few trees across the trail, but they weren't too hard to negotiate. We saw a few trilliums in bloom, and a bunch of fading flowers. It would have been spectacular a week ago. There were also some bleeding hearts and other wildflowers along the way.

Once you get to the mining artifacts (looks like an old stove, some shoe soles, and a flattened bucket), you'll have a choice. You can go along the hillside and down to the falls, or you can go uphill toward the mine. We went uphill first, missed the mine entrance, and ended up going much farther than we had to. We found the mine on the way back down. The area right by the entrance is covered by a few fallen trees, so it's hard to spot. You can still get to the entrance with a few gymnastics. The picture below is taken from near the mining artifacts and points out where the mine entrance is.

The falls were a beautiful spot to stop and rest, take off your shoes, and cool off on a hot day. There wasn't anywhere that looked safe to wade, but there were a couple of spots where you could sit and put your feet in the water.

Overall, a fantastic hike for a hot day. We'll be back!

In the wintertime, it's never a bad idea to have a Plan B, or C, or D, or E.  I ended up doing Plan E after running up against snow in all of my optimistic endeavors today.  However, I maintained a positive spirit, really enjoyed my Plan E hike which was Bridal Veil Falls, and wanted to share some info with you guys about trailhead accessibility.

Alright, so Plan A was actually to leave my house early and get a head start on my hike (because I had evening plans), but instead I got called in to take care of something at work.  Plan B was to attempt Kelley Creek via the Martin Creek Trailhead, but I drove to the left turn on the paved Old Cascade Highway and realized why the roads were in such good condition.  I saw a snow plow ahead of me and spoke with them...they told me it would be about 2 days until the road was clear so I thanked them and turned around.

Plan C was Lake Elizabeth, but I drove to 4 miles from the "trailhead" (the lake is right by the road and the trail around it is overgrown, so apparently it's not much of a hike) and encountered several feet of snow and didn't want to walk 8 miles in it, so turned around again.

Plan D was nearby Mohawk Falls and Mine which I'd attempted before.  I'd found the West Fork Miller River last time, and I endeavored to find Mohawk this time...I hadn't downloaded any of the trip report photos this time, but I spent a good 30 minutes walking up and down the road (which is now drivable yay!) and finally found the "stump" behind which there are pink flags tied to an overhanging tree that say "Mohawk."  However, it was deep post-holing territory and I couldn't discern a trail so turned around AGAIN.

Plan E was Bridal Veil Falls, which I'd been meaning to hike ever since I did Lake Serene in 2015 (but didn't have time/energy to at that time).  Parking lot was predictably populated with 5-6 cars, but when I got to the falls I was alone.  There are some downed trees, but it seems like the forest service has come in and sawed up a bunch of the blowdowns as the previous trip report mentions.  The creek crossings are doable, but just watch your step on the big rocks you'll encounter on the fork up to the falls.  There are beautiful views of Mount Forgotten, Gunn Peak, and the surrounding valley after you ascend the staircases.  This hike is like a slightly easier version of Teneriffe Falls, with the falls being more spread out.  Absolutely stunning!

We did this with a very adventurous, sure footed 2 year old and a 7 year old. Combined with dinner in Skykomish it made for a nice highway 2 excursion.

Check out the earlier trail report noting the large stump by the trail head. It truly is the only thing “marking” the trail head next to the creek bed.

*The long/lat WTA has listed under the map lands you roughly a half mile short of the creek.
*A thick blanket of leaves made navigation only slightly better than crossing a snow field at times. GPS settled our nerves. Green Trails Maps 176S doesn’t show this trail.

Wet rocks made the caves a big no-go given our group’s age span. It’ll be a few years before the 2 year old gets another shot at this one. I’d love to come back with the 7 year old on a dry summer day next year. 

We took our 3 year old and 16 year old on this super fun hike. We all had a blast. There was some scrambling, especially up near the mining cave. This was a bit tough for the toddler, but made the short hike worthwhile for the rest of us. It was also free of other hikers! We had the falls and caves all to ourselves.