It had been two years since I had been up here. The Middle Fork Road is now open on the weekends during the paving project so I took the opportunity to co- lead a group of hikers up to this wonderful place. Start out on Middle Fork trail 1003 and go about 5 miles until you reach the bridge crossing Cripple Creek. From here turn around and go back a few feet. You will see a boot path on your left (to the right of the creek) and get ready because the adventure is about to begin. First o would like to say please go with someone as there are ample spots where you could roll and ankle on this trail. This is not suitable for young kids or doge. Please leave them home. As you go up there are numerous blowdowns and the trail will not be obvious in many places. Look for the Orange marker tape and if you lose it just get close to the creek. The trail is never too far from it. At 1.2-1.3 miles you will come to Cripple Creek. You will see the bottom single fall of Tin Cup Joe Falls. You will cross the creek here and just to your left there is a climb up rocks and roots. Exercise extreme caution here. After you get up this short hill you will head right and go up someone until you find a safe way down to the falls. The place we found is where the two falls converge on a nice landing. It is not too steep heading down here. Enjoy some lunch, listen to the falls, and make sure you cross the creek here again and climb up a short ways on the rocks to see the right side falls. Both are beautiful and empty from 7 lakes above. This years falls were still very pretty but pale in comparison to the volume of water I encountered two years ago. This is such a raw and untouched place. If you are prepared for 13 miles and some bushwacking head on up!

This hike starts out at the beautiful Gateway Bridge which is the beginning of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Trail #1003. Along the way you will follow the river, go through old growth forest, see many flowers, and if you like munch of berries which are all over the trail this time of year. The trail is a little overgrown, but not a real concern. It is in fairly good shape with only a little mud left which is easy to avoid. Tin Cup Joe Falls is an unmarked trail, but easier to find than I expected. At the five mile mark you will come to the Cripple Creek Bridge. It is the first major bridge on the trail. You can sit here, recharge, and get ready for the journey ahead. From the bridge turn around like you are going back the way you came and about 50 or 60 feet you will see a trail on your left (facing west) by an old downed tree. The path is obvious here - but will not be in many places. As you follow this trail you will need to be cautious in many aread as there are many blow downs that you need to cross and finding a good spot for your foot where you won't twist an ankle is essential. You there is a spot about halfway in where we almost crossed the creek because a report I read said cross at the big log. DO NOT cross here! Keep following the orange tape left by the trail crews. They could use a little more of it is you ask me. The orange tape will lead you to the creek about a mile in and to your right you will see the first sight of lower tin cup joe falls. DO NOT stop here. This is where you will cross the creek - use caution as it is swift, but not very deep and very passable. We brought sandals to ford the creek so we could have dry hiking boots for the rest of the journey. Once across you will see a steep hill - yes, this is your path. You will need to step on roots and this is a climb - use caution. Once up the trail follows to the right and is hard to find at times but keep going forward and you will get there to the base of the left tier of the falls. Do yourself a favor and get in the creek here for a better view of the falls. If you are brave enough to cross the creek here (you should!) you will be able to see a sight of both falls and then keep going for an amazing shot of the right side falls. 10 easy miles and 3 fairly difficult ones. Mostly due to route finding but also a little bit of a workout climbing over things and trying to keep your ankles from rolling. A must see for those that like waterfalls. I won't show pictures from the Middle fork trail as you can see those on other trip reports. The pictures attached are after Cripple Creek Bridge. I wonder if they named it Cripple Creek because of the rough terrain!

Friends suggested this hike from other sites and reports, and the promise of seeing a difficult-to-reach set of falls motivated us. Hiked the trail on the south side of the Middle Fork to the bridge crossing Cripple Creek. The trail to this point was okay; a little muddy in spots. Surprised at all the tiny spider webs crossing the trail. To head up to Tin Cup Joe Falls, find the take-off from the main trail just a few yards west of (before) the Cripple Creek bridge. From this point on, you're in full trail-finding mode as this is an un-maintained trail. The trail meanders along, sometimes right along the creek butusually a few hundred feet to the creek's west side. Sometimes the trail just disappears. There are a few orange trail markers, but they are very inconsistent and don't seem to follow the true trail. You will encounter many, many fallen trees, often in a big jumble, that are difficult to cross. Sometimes you can opt to deviate closer or further to the creek to avoid it, but usually we just found a way over and under them. I would not try this hike alone as there are plenty of ways to mess yourself up. The three of us hiked with my two Boston Terriers, and they needed help about half a dozen times to get from log to log. There were several opportunities to get to the creek and capture many smaller falls, but our goal was Tin Cup Joe. After almost 2 hours of scrambling and trail-finding, we came to the bottom of the lower part of Tin Cup Joe Falls. We could just see the main falls above and could see that they were spectacular, but we wanted a better vantage point, so we scrambled up a steep and dry stream bed to the right, often on all fours. Using a few fallen logs, we cross some dense low brush, but we failed to break out into a full view of the falls. So we headed about halfway down, this time trying to stay close to the creek. We finally punched out of the brush onto a rock/boulder ledge where we were able to get some pictures. The falls are truly remarkable -- arguably the best I have seen in Washington. There is a broad cascading fall that must fall 150 ft or more in one drop, then a few more beneath it. Likewise there is a long rope fall to the right that is equally impressive. I wish we could have reached a better vantage point. This was not an easy hike; difficult to get through some of the falls, but well worth the effort. You have to be patient. On the way back down, we found the trail more easily, and it was generally a little further from the creek than we expected. Back on the main trail, the 5 miles back to the trailhead was muddier than earlier, and a heavy rain set in over the last 2.5 miles. That wasn't fun, but it was not too cold. And we were pleased to have captured many great pictures of Tin Cup Joe Falls. The entire hike was between 11 and 12 miles, 7.5 hours, with lots of picture-taking along the way.