The waterfall here is spectacular and may bias the rest of this report. 

There was a road closed sign in front of the parking lot, but that did not stop us from parking in the gravel lot near the entrance and walking down to the trail.  2 trails go off from this parking lot, so make sure you read the signs and start the right trail.  The splits off the main trails that go down to the falls are not marked, but you can hear the falls.  Just be careful getting down the hills, easy to slide down to see the spectacular view (watch the kids).  The second view point (trail splitting off to the left after going up the switchbacks) gives a spectacular close-up view of the falls (just make sure you are safe going up and down  

After that, the trail becomes interesting.  Steep, unsteady at points, and then post wildfire with a few obstacles (easily traversed though) may make this less interesting for some hikers, especially for children.  Whoever is doing maintenance on the trail has done a great job of keeping the trail at least open and suitable for travel after the wildfire.  The upper falls can only be seen through the trees before the bridge, as it did not appear safe to traverse the burnt out bridge going over the stream above the falls to go on (around mile 2.4 if you went up and down both viewpoints for the lower falls earlier)

We hiked with 7 kids ages 5 to 13.

WTA's description and directions of the hike has not been updated since last years Norse Peak fire. The bridge that is mentioned has been rebuilt since the fire so no need for detours.

From the parking lot, take the trail on your left that is clearly marked for Union Creek. You'll cross a well built bridge and just beyond that is the trail where you can reach the first falls. A lot of the soil is unstable so be very careful with your footing.

The rest of the hike is easy to follow. When you get down to the creek above the second falls, you can easily cross the creek to continue your hike or just walk back to see the 3rd falls. The 3rd falls was magnificent so don't miss it!

If you plan do hike here, understand that some may not be comfortable with the ash and lack of stability in some places. Hike with caution. Despite the fires, this is still a gorgeous hike, no real views along the way, but the burned trees and new growth has it's own beauty! I would reccomend this hike.

Wanted to see the fire damage to one of our favorite quick hikes to an awesome falls. We only went as far as the initial level out past the switchbacks climb adjacent to the main falls. (About a mile up including the spurs to lower and mid access points)

The falls themselves remain green and there are lovely wildflowers clinging to the cliffs that were highlighted by the sun. Much of the area is directly burned with scorched trunks and red needles and the Forrest service looks like they've been working hard to clear trees. There is a new awesome log bridge crossing that replaced the old log with rope handhold-It's a sizable step on the far side but now has a hand rail. (Probably not accessible though unless you have long legs or can bend a bit. )The trail is in much better shape than I thought from reading a previous post but I can't speak to the rest of the trail beyond that initial section. Since we've been doing this one (4 years?) the switchbacks have always been a bit sandy with some minor scrambling required on the spurs to reach the falls. Lots of warning signs up about risk of falling trees and general destable nature due to fire and a bridge out (not sure which one that referred to but not the initial main crossing). 

The top allows for some views of the burn areas both near and far. It was a hard reminder for me about the natural fire cycle but worth seeing.

Falls still provide some serious spray/cooling and the water was frigid as expected....

Did the Union Creek Falls hike today. The falls are running really high right now, great time to go up. The first log bridge is good, the second bridge by the large falls is destroyed (from the fire last year), but there is still a burned out log that you can cross on. The area is probably 80-85% burned out, with A LOT of downed trees. Some trail maintenance has been done to get a few of the trees that are on the trail, but you still need to go over/around/under quite a few. The trail has MANY washouts/erosion spots on it, anywhere from 1 foot to around 6-8 feet across, I'm sure from spring runoff, and a lack of vegetation after the fire. They are only going to get worse, and there were many places where erosion is going to take out the trail, unless some serious maintenance is done. It's sad to see. I'm wondering how long the trail will be able to be kept open now, many parts of it are going to be completely washed/eroded away if nothing is done. It will be interesting to watch the area and see it's recovery efforts, enjoy it while you still can!